Reprise
by Kamiko Kiyo
Summary: Under major construction and story/writing evaluation. OC story.
1. Here We Go Again

**AU:** My latest attempt at being creative. For those who realize that there may be some striking similarities in the story to Teamhalo13's story, yes, this is in one way or another connected to her story DoRHS. It's hard to really explain what all has occurred between me and her, but the point is that there is an understanding between me and her and that she is alright with this. We have some sort of joint ownership in this deal.

For the most part this is really like an alternate version of her story where things really split off from hers from the very beginning.

And for those that have no idea what I'm talking about, forget it and see for yourself what this is about.

**Disclaimer:** Nobody owns One Piece, but Oda-sama, we clear? All we have is the right to screw around with what he makes. All that is not Oda's is the OC's, but I don't even own-well, I sorta do and and I don't... *sweats* THIS VERSION OF THE CHARACTERS IS MINE! With minor ownership by Teamhalo13.

word~ means extended speech

Chapter 1 (Revised)

To say Coby was nervous was an understatement. He wanted to run away. Far, far away and never have to come back to his horrible life as Alvida's abused cabin boy. But he'd learned a long time ago it would do him no good. And he didn't believe he had the nerve to try anymore. So he'd taken everything submissively with a good dose of fear and continued on with his retched life.

He'd retained some form of forlorn hope over the years that maybe one day Alvida would be arrested by the marines. Every time he saw a marine ship he'd wonder if this was the time that the tyrannical woman would be brought to justice and he'd be able to explain his situation and be freed, but every time his hopes were dashed away with the canon balls that would fire from the Alvida pirates and sink the government vessels.

Now, on this random ship that the Alvida pirates had chosen to raid, he'd had an encounter that would change his fate forever. Although, he'd only figure that out later. Much, much later. For now, it was only because of an uncharacteristic spur of the moment choice that he wasn't bolting out of the room to avoid getting found fraternizing with the resistance. Or as many soon called them: the dead. And for what? Curiosity. That and a moment of human interaction with people that he didn't have to fear who might at least give him a bit of respect, if only for a moment.

It all started when he was trying to avoid the pirates as they plundered. He'd caught on early that it was better to stay out of their way and not draw attention to himself while they were carnage bent.

He'd wandered into the ship's abandoned kitchen and found a curiously large barrel. Before he could inspect it any further he'd been found out by some of the pirates. More specifically the ones that often bullied him (one second thought, he supposed that wasn't very specific, seeing as all the pirates he lived with took advantage of his lack of a back bone every day of his life). And, sparing no seconds of their time, they already began to 'convince ' him not to tell Alvida about them drinking (from the barrel he found) on the job.

Sadly, that in itself was common during the pillages, but what happened afterward was anything but.

_"This sucker's heavy," the fattest of the pirates said as he turned the barrel up right and then proceeded to crack his knuckles. "Hold on boys, I'll open it the old fashioned way," pulling his fist back, he was about to strike. This blow surely packed a punch of frightening force that, had it been directed at Coby, would make him sore for day-_

_At that moment the man was slammed in the face and knocked out cold as a grinning teenager shot and out of the barrel with his fists in the air._

_"AH~! I~! SLEPT~! SO~! GREAT~!" the teen yelled boisterously. He suddenly pulled a blank expression as he noticed he was, in fact, in a room filled with people. _

_Upon further inspection he was wearing a red, yellow buttoned vest with blue pants and had a scar under his left eye. Another distinctive feature was the pith helmet straw hat he wore on top of his choppy, black hair that had a red ribbon strung around it. _

_"Huh, who's that?" he asked looking down at the pirate he had just unknowingly punched. Turning his head toward the other two wide-eyed pirates standing in front of him, he asked stupidly, "Who the hell are you guys?"_

_"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!" they shouted back in anger and annoyance._

_"Your friend will catch cold sleeping like that," he advised as he stepped out of the barrel, revealing his scandals, completely ignoring their question._

_"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO KNOCKED HIM OUT!" The young man then found himself with a sword in front of his face as the two marauders looked at him, both nervous and angry at the same time._

_Suddenly a loud yawn rang out from the same barrel the boy just exited and everyone watched as a gloved hand clutched the rim of the barrel. They followed it to reveal an arm that lifted a girl around the same age as the boy out of the barrel for all to see, who stared into space with bleary eyes, blinking once or twice. _

_She had a head of long red hair that was tied back in a braid that reached close to her hips and a red sash of a darker shade than her hair tied around her hips, covering the top of her black pants._

_She scowled, saying, "Would whoever's making all the noise shut it? I am _trying_ to sleep," though her eyes were still focused on nothing but thin air. She sounded very irritated by her tone, in large contrast to the other mysterious boy who made his appearance with a smile. _

_Yawning again, the girl stood up and stepped out as well to show her black boots that had the ends of her pants tucked inside._

_Having seemed to have lost all hope for any shut eye when she saw her audience, she stretched briefly before she started to fix her clothes that had gotten a bit ruffled from sleep. Her head was slightly bowed as she rubbed her eyes. The top of her head adorned a long white bandanna whose ends fell a few inches above her waist. Matching in color, was the plain white t-shirt she wore. Oddly, on her right hand she wore only one black glove that had the top half of the fingers missing and a dark green ring over the glove on her middle finger._

_The young man, who was presumably her companion smiled at her. Spotting him she, in turn, lost her scowl and gave a light, groggy nod._

_"Hey, Yuuki," the boy greeted brightly. "How do you feel?"_

_"Like I've been stuck in a cramped barrel for who knows how long with a moron who sailed us into a whirlpool," the girl, now known as Yuuki, snapped with a face devoid her cranky mood. After another very brief session of stretching her face softened as she began to wake up. "But I guess you did good this time by inhaling all the food we had. Who would have thought that your eating habits would save our lives one day?" she mused. "Without an empty barrel we would've wound up dead."_

_"Yep!" the teen, now known as Luffy, grinned proudly, disregarding her insult._

_"Hold up! Are you two messing with us when you know good and well that we're vicious pirates? Huh!" demanded the pirate with the green tattoo over his eye._

_Looked like they'd finally had it with being ignored._

_"I'm starving, you got any food?" Luffy asked Coby with slumped arms, not seeming to recognize the kid was gaping at him, stunned and not likely to give an audible response._

_"I'm talking to YOU~!" he bellowed as their presence went unacknowledged. The pirates were almost at their limit with the two strange teens._

_"I'm hungry too. I wonder what they've got to eat around here," Yuuki, still dazed from her sleep, started to walk around the room, looking for something to settle her and Luffy's appetite, walking right past the two pirates as if they were as visible as air. _

_That was it for the pirates._

_"Arr, you damn kids!" The men aimed their weapons at the teens separately, the tall one went for the girl, who had her back turned to everyone looking for food. Meanwhile, the green tattooed pirate ran for the boy. All the while Coby covered his eyes in fear as the swords were swung, not wanting to see the people be slashed to their deaths._

_A few moments passed and he heard nothing but thumps. Expecting to hear cries of pain and registering nothing of the sort, the vision impaired boy chanced a peek and was surprised to see the two pirates on the floor, back to back, cowering in terror at their respective 'victims,' who were unharmed. Luffy, was looking at them both with a questioning, concerned look on his face, as if he were silently asking if the two needed a psychological assessment while the girl, Yuuki, stared at them with bright green eyes no longer hidden by her head binding._

_"What is wrong with you two?" the teenage boy asked._

_"You're guess is as good as mine," Yuuki shrugged._

_"W-Who are you?" the green tattooed pirate seemed to be hyperventilating at this point._

_"Oh, my name is Monkey D. Luffy. Hi," Luffy smiled proudly._

_"The name's Kou S. Yuuki, Mr. What's-your-face," Yuuki stared at them evenly._

_From here the pirates screamed bloody murder and quickly stumbled out the door. Amazingly, dragging their friend along all the while, who still hadn't retained consciousness yet._

_The three of them were silent._

_"So… what just happened?" Coby asked, having sunken to the floor on all fours in awe._

_"You got me."_

_"Dunno," were the simultaneous answers of the mysterious pair._

_That was when the reality kicked in. "Quick! You gotta run! If those guys come back here with their buddies, then they'll kill you both on the spot!"_

_"I don't care about that, I'm hungry," Luffy responded._

_"We're in luck. This looks like a kitchen. Oh, and if you're gonna pay if you eat it all before I get some," Yuuki warned him, knowing his habits of eating anything and everything edible in sight, and sometimes even trying things that weren't out of pure curiosity or as Yuuki called it, stupidity._

_"How can you blow this off like that! There are hundreds of them up on deck and they're waiting for the opportunity to kill anything," he explained as Luffy sniffed the air for food like a dog._

_As he started walking forward he was held back by Coby, who cling to his arm in futile attempts to stop the straw hat wearing youth. _

_Yuuki simply trailed behind them knowing where Luffy went food was not too far away._

And that was how he came to hiding out in a storage room with two strange strangers.

"Ha, ha, ha! It's a gold mine! Food, food, food, food!" Jumping down into the lower part of the food storage room Luffy laughed satisfaction while looking around to see the variety of his find and babbled on about food and what to eat. He was followed by Yuuki, who was just as happy, but less ostentatious about it as she searched the stock for something appetizing.

"Who knows, maybe we'll be safe in here as long no one else gets hungry," Coby murmured after looking out of the door carefully and closing it to ensure that they wouldn't be discovered sooner.

"This looks promising. Apples! Excellent!" Luffy continued on to laugh, still full on his food fueled high. "Heh, tasty," gazing at two apples in his hands he began to chow down, but bit into nothing. Confused, but too hungry to care he hungrily dug into the whole crate of fruit.

Meanwhile, Yuuki enjoyed (at a normal pace) the apples she had just swiped from her black haired friend.

"Hey, my name's Coby. You're Luffy and Yuuki, is that right? That was pretty neat what you did with that barrel back there," Coby approached the two from the stairs. Yuuki said nothing, choosing to simply eat her apples and watch Coby's movement with curiosity and interest.

Coby sat down next to the two politely so that the three formed a triangle. As he did this, Luffy stopped his inhaling momentarily, turning only to comment: "These are awesome," before continuing his feast. "So, are we on a pirate ship or what?" Luffy asked, still stuffing his face.

"No, it's a passenger ship that's being raided by pirates. Pirates under the command of Lady Alvida," Coby's voice turned weary as he spoke her name.

"Lady Alvida, huh?" Yuuki mused. "Do you know if there are any boats on board?" she asked as she finished her apples.

"I think there are a few."

"Great, 'cause ours got stuck in some big whirlpool," Luffy chirped in. Yuuki quickly snatched up another apple from the crate, evading Luffy's hands that were sure to try to bite into her limb before noticing that what he had in his mouth was a bit more solid and alive than an apple.

"That one outside? No way!" he exclaimed. Coby paused in thought. "No one could have survived that," although he did vaguely remember hearing Yuuki say something similar earlier, but then again, he was a bit too dumbfounded at the time to know for sure.

Luffy gave the boy with a jubilant smile. "Heh, heh, yeah. I gotta say it was a big surprise!" Yuuki smiled briefly at Luffy's carefree attitude as well, feeling much better about the memory now that she was awake, had food in her stomach and wasn't in the cramped barrel any longer.

"So, are you one of the pirates?" Luffy asked.

"Or a passenger?" Yuuki added.

Coby blinked at then looked down, recalling his 'fate' as he called it and told them his story. It really wasn't as dramatic and tragic as he made it out to be. It turns out he was fishing for dinner one day and mistook a pirate boat for a fishing boat and ended up stuck with them somehow. True, he was now stuck on a pirate ship as a cabin boy doing a bunch of crap work everyday so that his life would be spared and he'd been living this way for two years with people who could kill him at any second if they pleased because of it. But it wasn't as if the pirates had deliberately attacked and raided his village, killed his entire family in front of him and then kidnapped him forcing him into a life of piracy and killing in cold blood. Yes, his life may have sucked, but it all happened more due to bad luck than fate or anything spiritual having to do with destiny.

Luffy sat beside Coby and Yuuki sat at his front, both looking at him as he finished his story.

By now Luffy had eaten his fill, or at least was full enough not to eat, and stared at Coby.

After a moment of silence Luffy broke it.

"You're pretty stupid, you know that?" Luffy said truthfully.

Yuuki immediately hit him on his straw hat covered head, muttering, "Shut up," but Luffy didn't seem to have noticed.

"Gee, thanks for your honesty," Coby bowed his head lower at the insult.

"If you hate it, then leave," Luffy advised him.

"I know I would," added Yuuki.

"Are you kidding! I can't do that! No way, nuh-uh, not a chance. Just the thought of Alvida finding me scares me so bad I wanna throw up!" he babbled shaking his head back and forth.

"Wow, is she some hideous monster?" Yuuki asked.

"You're a moron and a coward," Luffy grinned widely and laughed. "Ha ha, I hate people like you!" Luffy continued laughing as Coby cried a river at the teenagers brutal, painful honesty.

And he was still laughing.

Yuuki, on the other hand, was a bit more sympathetic and patted his shoulder to try to comfort the younger boy.

"Yeah, you're right," Coby admitted, recovered from his momentary emotional collapse. "If I had the courage I could drift alone in a barrel and be rid of these pirates. I actually have my own dreams. Someday," he paused, "I'd like to live out all of them." Coby had a nervous smile on his face, looking down as he reflected on said dreams. Luffy and Yuuki watched him quietly until he looked up at them.

"So, what about you guys? What was it that first got you to set sail on these seas?" His question caught both of their attentions and they both smiled.

"Well, _I'm_ gonna be King Pirates," Luffy stated.

Coby gawked at him incredulously, turning a very ghostly shade of white at the same time. He then shakily turned his head to Yuuki like a sprinkler, asking silently, "And you?" hoping for something a bit closer to the realm of sanity.

"Me too, but I guess it'd be more accurate to say I'm gonna be the Queen," the girl paused thoughtfully, then shrugged. "Eh, same difference," at this point he seemed about ready to keel over, sweating profusely and looking a bit nauseous at their statements. It was as if a bomb went off in his head and his mind was momentarily frozen.

The two barrel drifters just stared at him, content at their proclamations, waiting for him to respond and soon enough, the hamsters wheels in his brain began to turn.

"A King?" he paused, "and _Queen_?"

"Yep," Luffy still stared, lightly smiling.

"Are you _serious_?"

"Uh-huh," Yuuki replied.

"Bu-But that would mean that you guys are pirates too~," his voice quivered.

"Right," they both said.

"Y-your crew?" Coby implied.

"Don't have one yet, but we're looking for 'em. Yuuki's a start, but she's the Vice-Captain, so we're gonna have to look," Luffy told him as the boy's jaw somehow dropped lower and he got a really funny look on his face.

Eventually, they both noticed he looked somewhat troubled and both leaned a little closer to him to investigate. Luffy began by waving his hand in front of the glasses wearing boy and when that didn't work Yuuki started to poke him in the head, trying to get a reaction from him.

Coby stood up abruptly, seeming to finally snap out of his daze. "King of the Pirates is a title given to the one who obtains everything this world has to offer! You're are talking about seeking the great treasure of wealth, fame and power!" at this both Captains nodded. "The treasure that you seek is the One Piece!" Coby accused as he threw his hands out for emphasis.

"Yeah."

"Of course," the young pirates confirmed.

"'Yeah'! 'Of course'! That's it! Pirates from all over the world are looking for that treasure, ya know!"

"Yes, we _do_ know that." Yuuki was a getting a little impatient with the kid reciting the same information they knew to them as if it was some big news. Just what was he getting at? They were going to find One Piece and then become King and Queen of the pirates. Was that really so hard to grasp?

"No way! It's impossible, impossible, impossible!" he started to shake his head wildly again and Yuuki was seriously wondering what problems this kid had and thought that he might want to seek some help in the future, "There's no way anyone like you guys could ever reach the pinnacle during this great pirate age! There's just too many that are meaner and better-ah!" at this Luffy stood up to hit Coby on the head sending him to the ground holding his injured cranium in pain. "Ow~, why did you hit me?" he moaned.

"'Cause I felt like it," Luffy said simply.

"'Cause you're being a pessimist," Yuuki added.

He moaned again. "Oh well. I'm used to that stuff, my ship mates smack me around a lot," he laughed humorlessly. "All the time, in fact."

Luffy placed his hand on his head and Yuuki crouched down lazily, resting her elbows on her knees.

"It's not about if we _can_," Luffy smirked.

"We've thought about this before, despite what you may think," Yuuki shut her eyes and rocked back on her heels.

Coby looked up at them in confusion.

"We're doing this because we _want_ to," Luffy finished.

Coby's eyes widened at them.

"I decided long ago that I'm gonna be King of the Pirates." He was showing his rarely seen side of seriousness and Yuuki could tell he was mind was only partially on his conversation and part of it was stuck somewhere else in his head.

"I _will_ find the One Piece," Yuuki said slowly, opening her eyes.

"If we have to die fighting for that, then we die," Luffy said looking at his hat in his hand, which he had taken off, with a hint of a smile.

"But we'll die with no regrets. Which is more than most people can say."

Coby looked at them, in awe of their resolve and bravery. To think that these were the same people he had just taken for fools to even have the thought of obtaining the title of ruler of the pirates and were now determined gamblers of fate who were unflinching in the face of uncertainty and death. The risk, the unknown obstacles they would have to face, their lives; it all meant nothing in the face of their dreams.

And as if a switch had been flipped, Luffy replaced his hat on his head and walked away with a grin that had 'doofus' written all over it.

"Alright, now that my belly's full, I'm gonna go get me a brand new boat. They might even just give me one if I ask nice enough," Yuuki jumped up and walked off after him, sending Coby a polite nod as she walked by.

"We should ask for directions too. I wonder if we can get some food to go before we leave," Yuuki mused as an after thought.

"Maybe they're generous people," he thought optimistically as the pirates left the boy on the floor in deep thought.

"I guess I never thought of it like that," Coby spoke to himself. "If I put my mind to it; if I'm prepared to die for it; could I do something like that?"

The pirate duo stopped on the stairs as they heard his thoughts.

"Like what?" Luffy seemed to be curious, making him give Coby his full attention. Yuuki also looked at him expectantly.

"Do you think... do you think I could ever join the marines?" he asked with his head bowed, on all fours.

"Marines?" both teenagers chimed.

Coby stood up abruptly with raised, fisted hands and turned to them with determination shining in his eyes.

"Yes! Catching bad guys is the only thing I've ever wanted to do! It's been my dream since I was child! Do you think I could do it!" he asked them.

"How should I know that?" Luffy said chuckling.

"What are you asking us strangers for? That's something you gotta ask yourself?" Yuuki said, also amused at Coby's change of demeanor.

"Then I'm gonna do it! I'm not gonna get stuck here as a cabin boy for the rest of my life!" he seemed to have gained more confidence as he approached the two. "I'll break out, then I'll turn around and catch Alvida myself!"

As he finished his speech the ceiling broke through and wood and dust began falling where the pink haired boy had been standing before he dodged quickly, surprised at the sudden fall of debris. Dust was flying everywhere but at the stairs where Yuuki and Luffy stood and an unappealing, burly voice rang out through the room.

"Who is it that you plan on catching, Coby?" The dust cleared to reveal a large woman who rested a spiked club against her shoulder who was looking at the inhabitants of the rooming threateningly. This woman turned out to be the feared Alvida that Coby spoke of capturing just moments ago. "And you actually think this twig and flimsy girl are gonna help you...well?" Coby was shaking and holding his arms up in potential defense, producing a small whimper of fear. Showing no evidence of the air of confidence he just emanated. "Answer me," she demanded.

...

The woman only seemed to be getting angrier by his unresponsiveness.

Luffy was about to move forward, but was distracted by several swords being plunged through the door on both sides of his head. Yuuki looked back to see the blind attacks and got ready for a fight.

Alvida glared at a whimpering Coby fiercely before turning her attentions to Yuuki and, more specifically, Luffy. "Hm, my guess is that you're not Zoro the Pirate Hunter." This seemed to snap the easily frightened boy out of his cowering.

"Zoro?" Luffy questioned.

"And that would be...?" Yuuki raised an eyebrow for her to elaborate.

"Coby!" the wannabe marine shrieked in fright. "Who is the most beautiful of all on these seas?"

Luffy and Yuuki just stared at the older woman blankly, not really seeming to pay attention to the actual interaction, as Coby muddled through his words, trying to come up with an answer that wouldn't get him killed on the spot.

"A hideous monster..." the green eyed girl muttered unconsciously to herself. Luffy pointed and Yuuki stuck a naked thumb out at Alvida, both turning to Coby. "Yo, Coby?" she began.

"Who's the fat lady?" Luffy finished rudely.

Everyone in the room stared at the pair with jaws hanging low.

...

It was silent and everyone froze, worried that if Alvida saw the slightest bit of movement it would provoke some major misdirected female outrage and violence.

"Oh no."

"Not good," whispered the pirates from above the hole in the ceiling.

Several pulse marks appeared on her face before she fully reacted.

"YOU~ RUNTS~!" Alvida yelled, swinging her spiked club at the two. Yuuki immediately grabbed onto Luffy's back, who held his hand on his hat, before jumping out of the club's path which smashed the wood that had been under their feet.

Landing in front of a, yet again, cowering Coby, he said, "let's go," and grabbed the boy by the hand. He jumped again to land on the upper deck, through the hole in the storage room's ceiling, and smirked excitedly as he saw the horde of pirates armed and ready for a fight.

One brave pirate took the lead and ran at Luffy, swinging his sword. All he was able to slice was air as the straw hat wearer leaned back so far you'd think his was about to fall on the ground. With Yuuki still attached to his back, he instantly pulled his head back up to headbutt the pirate.

As he finished his attack, Yuuki took advantage of the angle, unwrapping her arms from his neck and held onto his shoulder bringing her feet up to use his back as a platform. Pushing off and flying backwards after using Luffy as jump base, she extended one arm to clothesline a pirate, who had tried come at Luffy from behind, before falling on her back and rolling onto her hands to push off and gracefully land on feet.

"Missed me!" Luffy yelled as another group of pirates ran at him together and swung their swords at him at the same time, missing when he jumped.

Landing, he grinned at them and gripped his left upper arm with his right hand in a show of strength. This seemed to impress Coby and make the pirates nervous and not dare to approach him, but Yuuki wasn't so easily swayed.

_'Show off_,' she thought as she ran toward Luffy to help him fight.

She stopped in her tracks, however, when she heard a scream she recognized as Coby's (seeing as she had heard it so often during her short time on the ship) and narrowly dodged a pirate swinging a sword, who had jumped at her from the deck above in an attempt to get her from behind. Before he even touched the ground, she kicked the offender to Luffy, who stood not too far away, and caught him by the head.

"It's not fair to attack from behind," Luffy said, unbelieving that someone would be so dishonest in a fight between pirates. He then threw the guy at the group in front of them, making them topple over like bowling pins.

It was then that the teen heard an angry growl behind him. Turning his head to see a large horde of pirates he didn't waste a second as he immediately started...running away?

Yuuki surprisingly laughed at her commanding Captain as he ran past her as well as Coby, who was sitting a little ways away from her, speechless at their display of strength, with the armada hot on his heels.

Rubbing a tear from her eye that she'd produced from the excessive laughing, the Vice-Captain started in her search of the ship. Deciding to go see if she could find them a boat while Luffy was messing around she walked away only to come face to face with a pair of pirates, notably at least three times her size, with threatening glares on their faces and arms crossed.

Letting out a breathless laugh, with a light sweat on her face, she slowly took a step back and turned, running into a wall. Stumbling back a bit Yuuki looked back to see what she'd hit-wait, were walls always that tan a color and radiating auras of carnage and death?

Gazing upward, she found another two men who had just as, if not more, menacing and blood thirsty looks than the pirates now behind her.

...needless to say, she'd prefer a wall.

"Bye!" Making a mad dash for anywhere other than the four pirates, Yuuki didn't make it very far as they ran after her, with more speed than she thought they would have considering their size. They quickly wrestled her to the ground together so that not even the light of day could reach her, let alone allow any place for her to escape.

Meanwhile, Luffy had run with a group of pirates hot on his tail. "Wah! It's even more not fair to gang up on a guy!" he yelled before catching his arm on the mast while still running, which caused his arm, to the absolute shock of the pirates, to stretch like a rubber band. "Heh, Gotcha."

"Heh, she's pretty strong for a girl," noted one of the large men as the pile they had formed shifted slightly.

"Doesn't matter, once we catch her friend, they're both in for a world of hurt! That's what happens when you mess with the Alvida pi-" black clouds began to seep out from the cracks of the men's dog pile suddenly, making them stare, frozen in bafflement and wonder.

"What the heck is thi-? Ah!" The pirates were flung away, caught in the path of two pillars of the dark substance, and shot across the deck in opposite directions. Two of the men were slammed through the ship's walls as the other two struck the bottom of the bowspit making it break it off from the ship and fall into the waters below.

Coby watched Yuuki, whose arms were outstretched to her sides, as the dark pillars covering her arms dissipated into nothing.

"That'll teach you to try beating up on a girl, you big bullies," she walked away, leaving the pirates in twitching heaps of unconsciousness. Looking around she spotted Coby staring at her, dumbfounded.

She tried again to find her black haired friend, suddenly...

"GUM-" the pirates turned and started retreating, "GUM-" but it felt like they were getting nowhere as the young pirate wound up his attack and the pirates knew that they were dead mea- "ROCKET!"

Luffy stopped running and let his arms retract, sending him flying at great speeds, plowing through the pirates, who seemed to be running in slow motion, and knocking them all to the ground in pain, if not into unconsciousness.

Yuuki brushed herself off of invisible dust. "Nice, looks like you got the most," she praised.

"You didn't do too bad yourself," he smiled at the sight of the four pirates who's eyes had rolled to the backs of their heads.

Coby walked toward the two cautiously. "Luffy...Yuuki... what are you guys?"

"Oh, I'm a rubber man," Luffy smiled while stretching his mouth out inhumanly as proof.

"Just a little storm maker," Yuuki explained indifferently.

"So you're… made of rubber...? And you can...make...storms...? I-" Coby felt a familiar presence behind him and quickly bolted on instinct, crawling forward and cowering between, and slightly behind, Yuuki and Luffy in fear.

"So, you've both eaten one of the Devil Fruits?" Alvida inquired darkly.

Luffy let go of his stretched mouth, making it give out a rubbery noise. "Yeah, I ate the Gum-Gum one," he supplied.

"Uh huh," Alvida muttered with intrigue. "I heard rumors they existed, but I've never seen any evidence of them before today," she clenched her teeth in a way that resembled a smirk.

"What's your point?" Yuuki's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"You two are more skilled than the average deck swaber. Are you bounty hunters?"

"Wrong," she chimed.

"We're pirates," Luffy corrected.

"Pirates? Ha! All by yourselves on these waters?" she mocked.

"Today's just Yuuki and me, but we'll find our crew tomorrow, or next week or something," the scarred teen declared. "We'll need-I don't know, like 10 guys...yeah,10," Luffy concluded.

"Ha! Tell me, if you and me are all pirates and we're not under the same flag, then that would make us enemies, am I right?" she asked rhetorically.

Yuuki thought otherwise. "Aw, there's no need for that. Can't we all just get along?" she said with false naivety.

"Uh, you guys? Let's go," Coby whispered, sweating profusely.

"Why?" Luffy inquired.

"We haven't even gotten our boat yet," Yuuki pointed out.

"You saw how powerful her club is, and of all the villainess chiefs in these water she's easily the most..." the cabin boy trailed as he was thrown into his thoughts, replaying the words the seemingly fearless, young, pirate Captains had uttered.

_"I decided long ago that I'm gonna be King of the Pirates." He was showing his rarely seen side of seriousness and Yuuki could tell he was mind was only partially on his conversation and part of it was stuck somewhere else in his head._

_"I _will_ find the One Piece," Yuuki said slowly, opening her eyes._

_"If we have to die fighting for that, then we die," Luffy said looking at his hat in his hand, which he had taken off, with a hint of a smile._

_"But we'll die with no regrets. Which is more than most people can say.__"_

Yuuki could tell by the look on Coby's face that he was remembering something, but what, she couldn't quite guess.

"Go on...tell me," Alvida said with deceiving encouragement.

Coby now seemed like he was holding something in as he clenched his teeth frustration. He then turned to his personified nightmare for the past two years.

"You're the most...UGLIEST THING ON THE SEA!" he yell with a passion as he left the Alvida pirates with dropped jaws in disbelief.

Alvida's eyes were shadowed by her hat and it seemed to drag on forever for a terrified Coby, who squeezed his eyes, that had tears at the corners of them, shut. He may have been awaiting his eminent death, but he was going to go down showing he had back bone by standing his ground and taking it like a man.

Meanwhile, Luffy burst into a loud, boisterous laugh, while Yuuki's face held an smile filled with humor. Neither of them looked to be even attempting to conceal their amusement from Alvida.

"What'd you say!" Alivda yelled in outrage.

"I'm leaving, and going to join the Marines," the vision impaired boy declared in determination. "Then I'm gonna spend the rest of my life beating dirty pirates like you," Coby spit out like acid.

"Do you have any clue what you're saying to me right now?" the fat lady hissed, all the while Luffy was still laughing flamboyantly.

"Of course I do. And I'm gonna do what I want and no one's gonna stop me. And when I join the marines, I'm gonna catch you're lousy ass FIRST!"

"You're dead kid! AH!" Raising her club back, Alvida was ready to clobber Coby with the ferocity of a provoked bull, efficiently making the wannabe marine scream like his life depended on it. Of course, screaming wasn't going to miraculously disable Alvida from kicking his ass to hell. He looked pretty much screwed.

"Well said!" Luffy commented as he and Yuuki moved to block the furious woman from the boy, who had a momentarily, uncharacteristic burst of bravery.

Alvida swung, hitting Luffy head center on his head, pausing waiting for him to fall over dead. However, Luffy stood strong, smirking under his hat. "That won't work," he taunted.

"What!"

"I'm rubber," Luffy started stretching his arm backwards, smirking.

Alvida's eyes widened in realization and she took a step backwards getting ready to run. "GUM-" feeling herself slip and loose her footing, she struggled to stay unright on the suddenly slippery floor. The female pirate looked down to see her feet were surrounded by gray clouds which moved to reveal the ground underneath her covered ice. "GUM-" following the receeding clouds with her eyes, the trail led to a condescending looking Yuuki, who's lower half of her body seemed to have been replaced by the dark clouds, making her look like a genie.

"Bigger they are, the harder they fall...'Fat Lady,'" she imitated Luffy with a look radiating mischief, making Alvida torn between anger and anxiety.

"You little-!"

"Better luck next time," she smirked.

"PISTOL!" Luffy brought his arm back, punching Alvida in the gut and sending her flying out of view within seconds. Luffy retracted his arm into his strong arm pose his hand clenching his other arm muscle as he did before.

"I wonder how far you sent her?" Yuuki, who's clouds had evaporated, raised her hand to keep the sun out of her eyes, trying to see if she could estimate the distance for kicks.

"Who knows. Hey, you!" Luffy called to the pirate crew, who's captain he just send soaring, effectively striking fear into their hearts.

"Yes!" they all answered attentively.

"Go find a boat and give it to Coby." Luffy demanded. "He's leaving your ship to join the Marines, and you're not gonna stop him."

"Yeah, sure," they said in fear.

"And stock it with lots food while you're at it," Yuuki threw in with Luffy in mind.

"Oh! Make sure there's some meat on board too! A ton of it!" the rubber man added, with drool at the corner of his mouth.

"Thanks," Coby gave the black haired teen an appreciative look.

All of sudden explosions shook the waters making the inhabitants of the boats loose their balance.

"Look, it's the Marines."

"Of course they're here...now that we've done their work for them," Yuuki muttered sourly. Luffy, however, sung a different tune.

"Ooo, perfect timing. Head over there and tell 'em you wanna to join," the teen suggested.

"Huh?" Coby looked at them as if they spoke another language.

"Your dream," the redhead reminded him with amusement.

"But we're pirates, so we're outta here. C'mon Yuuki!" he yelled as he jumped overboard catching his Vice-Captain off guard.

"Hey, Luffy! Jeez, wait up for me, will ya?" Yuuki complained as she also jumped over the edge of the boat.

"No, wait! You can't be serious! If I approach them like this they'll capture me like I'm another pirate!"

"Play the passenger," Yuuki suggested as they ran off.

"I can't do that! You guys!"

Coby followed the duo in panic, not knowing what else to do, as they quickly secured a boat that had been provided by the obedient pirate crew of Alvida. The three dropped it down in a flash, causing a big splash in the waves of the ocean before they made a clean getaway from the scene of their 'crime'.

S

"We actually manged to get away," Coby said in disbelief as he finished scanning the waters for a boat in pursuit.

"Ah, what fun," Luffy laughed like a moron looking forward at their course with one of his forearms resting lazily on a drawn up knee.

"You sound surprised," Yuuki commented as she leaned against the side of the boat.

"Well, yeah," he admitted sheepishly. "A little."

"It's alright to tag along with us, but why would you?" Yuuki asked after a few minutes. "The marines were right there and we _are_ pirates," Yuuki claimed as if he didn't believe them. "Just like the ones you're out to catch as a marine."

"They would have seen me as a pirate on that ship. I couldn't stay," he said, downtrodden. "And I couldn't pretend to be a passenger. The Alvida pirates know me and would have ratted me out. They would have taken me down with them."

"I suppose. But why stick with a couple of pirates? Marines tend to hate our kind. Wouldn't a marine-to-be be the same?" she asked somberly.

Coby looked conflicted.

When he didn't answer right away, she continued, "Or are you hoping to catch us off guard and bring us in to the Marines as a house warming gift?" with a devious smirk.

He was quick to deny it. "No! I'm not-!"

"Yuuki, knock it off! Coby wouldn't do that," Luffy spoke with confidence.

"Kidding. Kidding," she raised her hands in defeat.

Coby clenched his hands, answering regardless. "I wanted to come with you 'cause I can't face them yet! I'm not ready to be one of them just yet. But I just need a little time. On the next island I'll definitely join them!" he announced. Cooling his jets a little, he quietly explained, "and I thought we were starting to become friends. I don't care if you're pirates. It's a little sad that we'll be enemies, but I don't hate you guys. It's only pirates like the Alvida Pirates. The bad ones that I want to arrest and throw in jail."

Luffy and Yuuki watched his bow his head with vacant stares.

"I'd like to think we're friends, but-" he paused, choking on the words. "Maybe you guys don't like Marines. It makes sense that you'd feel that way about someone who wanted to become you're natural enemy," Coby sighed, accepting the idea.

"That's not true," he heard Luffy.

"We're like you. We don't just inherently dislike Marines as pirates," Yuuki told him.

Coby looked at them hopefully. "So, you don't hate Marines?"

"Well, they can be really annoying sometimes," Luffy admitted. "And so can you," he added, making Coby visibly hurt at the brutal truth. "But even then, you're alright," he grinned, making the pink haired boy smile.

"Marines. Pirates. They're just like people. Some are good and some are bad. I'd say you're pretty good," Yuuki voiced encouragingly. "And sorry about that. I was just teasing," she said apologetically.

"You guys," Coby felt tears prick at his eyes. "So, um..." he began, trying to change the subject and prevent his tears from flowing.

"Huh?"

"If you're searching for the illusive One Piece, then you have to be headed for the Grand Line, right?"

"Mm-hm," both Luffy and Yuuki nodded.

"You know, the people that I've talked to call it the Pirate Graveyard."

"Right," Luffy smiled. "And that's why I need an extra strong crew. You guys mentioned some Pirate Hunter, what's he like, Coby?" Yuuki listened in on their conversation quietly, also interested.

"Oh, you mean Zoro? Last I heard was that he was being held prisoner at some Marine Base," he told him.

"Oh well, weakling, huh?" Luffy frowned in obvious disappointment.

"No, you're _so_ wrong! He's as violent as a demon and three times as horrifying," the ex-cabin boy exclaimed. Yuuki smirked inwardly in amusement at the boy from what, she deduced, was Coby being a scaredy-cat. She'd seen plenty of evidence of it during the little time she'd known him after all. In his defense, he'd had his show of strength on occasion, but from what she'd learned about the kid, she wouldn't put it past him to over exaggerate about some person he'd heard of.

Coby look at the redhead for a second for any reaction. When he she only stared he looked back to Luffy.

"Why are asking about him anyway?" he said, now cooled down.

Luffy smiled at the wannabe marine's enthusiasm and grinned. "I figure if he's good enough, I'd ask him to join my crew."

Coby stared at him, quite disturbed at the idea.

Yuuki smiled. "That's just like you, Luffy," she commented, but didn't show any signs of resistance in his decision.

"Chasing him down is just plain reckless," Coby argued.

"You never know, he might jump at the chance to join," Luffy said, always the optimist.

"He's a bad enough guy that the Marines caught him! There's no way, not a chance, forget it, no, no-" Luffy once again attacked the boy's head with his fist.

"Ow~, why'd ya hit me," Coby whined.

"'Cause I felt like it," Luffy answered as Yuuki burst out laughing at the two.


	2. Show me the Demon

**AU: **I apologize for being so late when I said it would be around every month, but I did say I was _trying _for that. But, still, 8 story alerts and 7 favorites. Glad to see there are people that like this. Anyway, to make up for it I give you the entire Zoro saga all at once. A few changes were made to the last chapter since posting, but nothing real important. Read and review!

**Disclaimer:** Nobody owns One Piece, but Oda-sama, we clear? All we have is the right to screw around with what he makes.

Chapter 2

_"-h! Wh-...?"_

_"...you...-ave. Now." _

_"...just ...-ays I ...-ave to...-ten...you?" _

_"If...-nother ste-, ...wish...had," ._

_"...-ould lear-...place. No...between me an-...!" _

_"I ...-ned you," _

_"Gah!" _

_"...-y!"_

_"Bastard."_

_"...are you?" ._

_"Cr-..." _

_"Hm, ...y-yah! Time...out! Ther-...no way ...-ighting y-...like _that_!" _

_"...?"_

_"Oh, ...-at all." _

_"..."_

_"Hey! I-... the same thi-...told ...other... I ...get ...stay out. ...-don't wan- ...here, so get ...damn su- ...and leave!"_

_"Put some clothes on!"_

"What a day! It's gorgeous!" Yuuki was rudely awoken by the sound of a familiarly loud yell. _I'll kill it, _she thought darkly, blearily threatening the creature that was making the obnoxious noise.

"Hm, ah! Luffy, I told you you should keep your voice down, you woke up Yuuki," Coby said when he saw Yuuki sitting up and staring at him blankly. At first he'd been surprised that Yuuki could so easily fall asleep on the hard floor of a boat, but when he'd asked, Luffy only shrugged, saying she did that kind of stuff all the time. Of course, just what 'that kind of stuff' was, Coby had no idea.

Then he'd remembered that Yuuki had originally been sleeping in a barrel when they'd first met. After two more seconds of thought the boy simply concluded that these two were mysteries he'd never solve.

The haze of sleep was slowly starting to recede. When Yuuki realized that it had been Luffy's obnoxious shouting that had awoken her, all murderous thoughts ceased and she melted into a simple sluggish demeanor. "How much longer?" Yuuki mumbled, half asleep. It was a vague question, but did the job.

"As long as we can stay on this heading we should reach the marine base in no time at all," he answered, while steering the boat.

Yuuki rubbed her eyes and her mind slowly bring things into focus. She thought she heard Luffy praising Coby's skill to navigate. After which, Coby chastised Luffy that they were skills every sailor should know.

In the duo's defense, Yuuki was a decent navigator, but when she saw Coby immediately take up the steer, she thought she'd leave it to him. After all, that was the only thing Alvida had thought he was good for and the sole reason why he'd kept his life for the last two years while on her ship. As for the incident of when they'd sailed into that whirlpool... let's just say Yuki might want to refrain from her spontaneous napping until they got their real navigator.

Luffy laughed it off when the short boy had been trying to scold him.

"You know there's nothing to be so giggly about, because at the Marine's base," Coby paused dramatically, which caused both young pirates to look at him curiously to see what he was so serious about. "They're holding the great pirate hunter, Roronoa Zoro. This is the man who's diced up his bounties like an animal bent on carnage. A bloodthirsty beast. He's been called nothing less than a living, breathing demon in human form."

Yuuki stared at him thougthtfully and, admittedly, still a bit drowsy. While the workings of her mind was usually a bit muddled when she was sleepy, Yuuki still observed the way Coby was acting. It reminded her much of the way he had described Alvida back on the ship. Seeing as Luffy had finished off the round woman so easily, she was starting to suspect exaggeration was just a part of the vision impaired boy's nature. After all, the fat lady wasn't nearly as strong as he'd described when they'd fought, so he must have just been very weak to see her or anyone else as such a threat.

"I don't know, Coby. I sort of doubt he's _that_ bad," she voiced her edited thoughts.

He stared at her incredulously. "Yuuki, how can you say that? He's a _bad_ guy!" Coby yelled.

"Just what _exactly_ makes you think so?" she asked with an even stare. "What do you know about this 'Zoro' that hasn't been hear-say among those wimpy pirates you were stuck with? I mean, they were so quick to cower when they saw someone with an ounce of strength," she said referring to Luffy. "I don't think anything they'd hear of could be that reliable." Yuuki crossed her legs and leaned her arms on them as she stared at the sky lazily."If you ask me, it all sounds a bit too unreal. Like some story made up to tell kids that if they became pirates the big bad Roronoa Zoro would come and chop them to pieces," she dropped her head to meet his eyes. "All I'm saying is that you can't decide everything on rumors. Sometimes you have to see things for yourself with your own eyes," she gave him a hint of a smirk.

Coby remained silent, having no words to retort back to the older girl. He supposed she might have a point, but rumors like that didn't come about without reason or events that set them off.

Yuuki turned to Luffy with a small smile. "That's why we're checking this guy out for our crew, right Captain?"

"Right!" Luffy grinned back.

S

"I made it," Coby said with tears at the corners of his eyes.

Having reached land and venturing into town, the three had set off in search of the local marine base with a goal in mind. Some being less legal than others.

On the way, they'd seen an oddity, quite unexpected. The moment Luffy mentioned Zoro, all people within the market immediately crushed themselves to the wall, staring at the trio fearfully like small woodlum creatures that had been cornered. The same thing, to Coby's surprise, happened when there was mention of Captain Morgan, the leader of the base they stood in front of.

Luffy simply laughed in amusement at the sight of the locals, while Yuuki wondered if she'd stepped into a different dimension when she exited that barrel back at the cruise ship, seeing as everyone she'd met since then acted crazy. Coby also gave the event some thought, saying he had a bad feeling, which was all but forgotten now that they stood in front of the tall metal doors to a large structure that had the words 'MARINE' written across in bold letters along with the marine emblem.

The wannabe marine turned away from the building, trying to wipe his tears as he spoke/whimpered, "This is where you and I part our ways guys. We didn't have long together but- huh?"

"Where's the foot hold?" Luffy complained as he tried to climb the wall of the base.

"Just swing your foot over the top, Luffy," Yuuki told him, sitting on the edge of the wall. Since reaching town, Yuuki had taken off her bandanna and tied it over her waist as a second, loosely tied sash. It now dangled over the wall with her feet, which she absentmindedly swing back and forth playfully as she waited patiently for her Captain.

"Get down from there! What are you doing! They'll see you!" Coby flailed his arms nervously.

His warnings, however, were ignored.

"Now where's this demon?" Luffy thought aloud, scoping out the grounds for a sign of life.

"They wouldn't keep him out in the open. He's probably tucked in a prison cell below ground," Coby murmured.

"There he is!" Luffy exclaimed, jumping down before running to get a better view. Yuuki stared after her companion and then followed after the teenage boy, running on the top of the wall instead of jumping down.

Supported by another area of the wall, the pirate duo scrutinized the man, who they assumed to be Zoro. The person they saw was tied to a crossed post, slumped, with his head down, looking about as alive as the post his body was attached to.

"Coby, look," Luffy encouraged.

Coby somehow got up to meet his friends, but only looked at them in concern.

"I'm telling you he's not-" Coby's words died on his lips as he spotted Zoro in all of his demonic glory. He truly did look intimidating, but it would take more than that to scare off the young pirates. Coby, on the other hand was terrified. One look and you could tell the boy was ready to bolt.

"That doesn't look very comfortable," Yuuki observed.

"Yeah," Luffy agreed. He grinned as a thought came to him. "If we untie those ropes he can just walk away," he pointed at their target.

"I'm on it," Yuuki quickly volunteered with a languid tone, landing on the other side of the wall into a crouch.

Almost immediately after she entered the yard Yuuki could hear Coby freaking out again and frantically trying to call her back. When those warnings fell on deaf ears, the vision impaired boy turned to Luffy saying he was an idiot and after that the redhead tuned him out for real. She'd had anticipated this, so she quickened her pace just a bit leaving her Captain to have to deal with the human danger alarm that was Coby. If they were going to get anything done it sure as heck wouldn't be with Coby screaming about every move they made.

Back at the wall, Coby's worries were easily dismissed. "Don't worry, me n' Yuuki are strong enough to protect us all," the straw hat boy was just too much, Coby decided, as he cried helplessly.

Once she was almost half way to the so called 'Demon', he rose his head up so that all three of them could see his menacingly shadowed eyes that spoke, "Come closer and you die."

"Stop," he commanded firmly in a surprisingly low, but worn voice.

Yuuki did as he said.

"Hey, you two," he called, equally as drained.

Coby screamed in terror, while Luffy stared.

"You're an eyesore. All of you get lost," he said threateningly.

Coby screamed again, before going to Luffy in another one of his tirades. Something about dying if this Zoro guy joined their crew.

As if that was going to stop the ambitious Captain.

"There's nothing I can do about how I look, but I can do something about those ropes," Yuuki replied, taking another step forward.

"I don't need anything from you," he spoke snidely.

"You sure? Just give me a minute and the ropes will be gone," she informed him, unperturbed by his attitude..

"I don't care about the damn ropes," he growled.

"Don't they bother you?"

"You're what's bothering me. If you wanna make me happy then leave!"

Just then, all of their attentions were diverted as a latter suddenly propped itself up on the wall and a little brown haired girl climbed up. Shushing Coby, who she apparently saw as the loudest of the group, she looked around quickly before lowing herself into the dusty field by a rope.

Seeing her running into the yard switched the pink haired boy went from curiosity to panicky as he freaked, fearful for the child who apparently had no sense of danger. As she passed Yuuki, the green eyed girl followed her leisurely toward the Pirate Hunter, gaining only a brief, curious glance from the girl she was trailing.

If the little girl could get closer without the restrained man going ballistic, then so could she.

"What do you want?" Zoro asked the unknown child rudely.

"I thought you might be getting hungry now, so I made you a couple of rice balls," she smiled sweetly.

"You got a death wish, kid? Just scram."

"But you haven't eaten anything the whole time you've been tied up," the girl untied the wrappings in her hands to reveal her creations. "Here, I never really made them before. But I did my best, so I think they're fine."

Up till this point, Zoro hadn't been radiating the same killing aura that he had before the little girl came, but when he saw the food his eyes widened and he started to gain back a bit of his edge.

"I'm not hungry! Now stop irritating me and get out of here," he commanded more firmly, but again, his words didn't have much bite to them. "That goes for you too," he nodded at Yuuki. "Beat it! All of you!"

"But-"

"Do _not_ make me kick your ass, little girl!" The Swordsman may have been allowed to yell at the little girl like that normally, but on Yuuki's watch he would not go without punishment. In an instant, the redhead's gloved fist was slammed down on the Swordsman's head without warning. "Ow! What the hell!" he yelled angrily. His right arm tugged on his ropes as if he were trying to reach over and rub the bump that had now swelled on his head.

"That was mean. Now be nice," Yuuki commanded blandly as if she were talking to a four-year-old.

"'That was mean!' You hit a guy who's tied up and defenseless and you think _that_ was mean!" the restrained Bounty Hunter stared at the green eyed teen, angry and incredulous. "And dammit! That hurt!" he yelled, again failing to ease the pain by cradling his head.

"Hey, I offered to take the ropes off, but you said no. And, c'mon. It didn't hurt that much."

"Didn't hurt that-? I bet gave me freaking _brain damage_ with how hard you hit m-!"

Zoro stopped at the sound of creaking and everyone looked at the gates on the other side of the yard as they opened. A man, who looked too arrogant for his own good, strode in, backed up by uniformed marines.

"Now, now, no one likes a bully _or_ a whiner," the man with a mushroom cap haircut walked towards the three with an expression that made you have the urge to sock him in the face for no apparent reason.

He chuckled. "Roronoa Zoro, you seem be handling this well, don't you agree?"

Yuuki was hoping this guy would leave soon, so that she could untie their guy. It was obvious that he was with the Marines somehow, even though he seemed like a weakling. So, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to do anything while he was around. Luckily, he had yet to acknowledge her presence, which made Yuuki determined to not draw attention to herself.

"Looky, some tasty rice balls," he said, leering at the little girl like a creeper, before snatching one of her rice balls.

"That's not for you," the pigtailed girl protested. This made Yuuki twitch a bit, but she remained still hoping that her metaphoric invisibility would hold. Zoro just stared at the blond in spite.

"Like I care," he took a bite and suddenly made a really funny face that almost made Yuuki lose her statue-like state.

"Ah! Too sweet!" he spit them out. "They're packed with sugar! You're supposed to use salt idiot! Salt!"

This guy was quickly breaking down Yuuki's determination to stay still.

"But I-I thought they'd taste better sweet," she defended. Tears were beginning to form at the corner of her eyes.

"Give me that," he grabbed the other rice ball and, to the little girl's despair, threw it to the ground and raised his foot in the air, ready to stomp on the homemade food. In a second his face was slapped by a hand that came out of nowhere causing him fall flat on the ground after releasing a very unmanly cry.

"Oops, sorry 'bout that. I was aiming for the bee," Yuuki stated sincerely, despite the fact that there was no bug in the air to be found.

The little girl looked on in curiosity with forgotten tears in her eyes.

"Ah!" the blond cried in outrage. His face now sported a red mark in the shape of Yuuki's hand. "Please! What bee! I don't see anything!"

"Only the pure hearted can see it," she stated, looking off to the side disinterestedly.

He growled. "And just who the hell are you!"

"Me? Oh, no one," she waved her hand nonchalantly. "You know, from my stand point you seem like the bully here," she said, pulling a much serious expression. "All she wanted was to give that guy some food she made," she pointed at Zoro, who also watched her, wondering just what she was doing. "And you stomp on it like trash?"

Getting up and holding his face where he was hit, the 'man' pulled out a slip of paper and held it up to the girls.

"Well, too bad," the anger in his voice was apparent. "You must not have read the notice that was posted,_ 'Those_ _who assist criminals in any way will be executed. Signed, Marine Capt. Morgan_.'" Seeing the sudden look of distress on the brunette girl's face caused him to laugh in glee, "Hih, hih, hih, hih." Yuuki thought his laugh was weird. "It seems that even little brats fear my Daddy."

_His _Daddy_? So that's why he acts so high and mighty,_ Yuuki concluded. And, as if to support her implication, one of the uniforms hesitated when he was told to throw the little girl over the wall, until the purple suited wimp threatened that he'd tattle to his Daddy if he didn't.

"Yes sir! I'll do it!" the man reached the for the child only to have his hand painfully gripped and twisted behind his back by a less than happy Yuuki.

"Hey! I said I wanted you to toss her out! Don't let some puny girl push you around! Now do it before I-ah!" While the blond was raving, Yuuki had released her grip on the soldier a little ways away from the girl and had begun advancing towards the mushroom haired guy. Said mushroom head took a step back, slightly intimidated when he realized she was right in front of him looking, decidedly, intimidating with her eyes shadowed by her bangs murderously.

Turning to the Marines he squawked, "Don't just stand there you imbeciles! Get her!" The two uniforms spared no time in charging Yuuki full force with the unspoken threat of being faced by the punk's father looming over their heads.

In the distance, Yuuki thought she heard the faintest noise that sounded like a frantic Coby as she dodged the first Marine's fists with ease and dropped down to knock his feet out from under him, sending him to the ground. When she got up she felt arms suddenly enclose around her body and found that the other marine had pinned her arms to her sides in a bear hug to restrain her.

Well, that was just a bit too close for Yuuki's comfort. "Hands off!" she yelled, immediately leaning forward and slamming her head back into the face of the Marine angrily.

Letting go and being distracted by his injured nose, she kicked him in the chest, sending him over a few yards to the ground.

Seeing the two uniforms down at her feet moaning in pain as a job well done, Yuuki turned to the wall to reassure Coby, who was most likely frantic throughout the whole fight, that everything was under control. She expected to see Coby sighing in relief and Luffy grinning at her fight.

Instead, she saw black. "Look out!" and a young scream resounded in the air as Yuuki's hair spilled out when her ribbon came loose and she collapsed motionlessly on the dusty ground. With her hair fanned over her face in disarray and how still she was, the redhead held a scary resemblance to a corpse.

Zoro had been watching the girl, who had hit him, with intrigue as she took down those two marines, but was distracted by a movement in the corner of his vision. That gutless bastard had taken up a stick from the ground and was about to hit the teenage girl over the head. Zoro yelled to warn her as the little girl screamed at the sight, but it was too late as the stick made contact with a _'thud_' over the female fighter's naked head. Her hair blanketed her eyes after it came undone, allowing only her slightly parted mouth to be visible.

"Ha! That's what happens to those that defy Captain Morgan's son!" the spineless 'man' taunted before kicking the defenseless pirate in the the stomach, making her body roll to the side. "You two!" he yelled at the marines who were still in pain from their tussle. "You may not have been able to defeat this feeble girl, but even you should be able to take care of a child. Now do as I say or face my father!"

The little girl shrieked as she was lifted by one of the capped men and rocketed out and over the wall of the dusty yard.

"Damn you," Zoro muttered darkly to the man, as he was approached by the scumbag, who was laughing maliciously.

"You're just dead set on staying alive, aren't you?" he walked up to Zoro.

"That's right, and I'm gonna make it through the month without any problems," Zoro declared.

"Right, good luck with that," he continued to laugh as he started passed him and toward the gate. He stopped suddenly and turned to his escorts, "Oh, and drop that filthy girl somewhere. I don't care where she is, just get her out of here," he commanded, not looking back.

After a few seconds one of the uniforms spoke up. "Um, there's a...problem, sir."

Annoyed at his soldiers apparent lack of competence, he looked back at them. "What is it no-"

Scanning the open yard, the mushroom head saw everything in order, but couldn't help but feel something was out of place. There was dust, a few pieces of debris here and there, his two marine escorts, Zoro tied to a post, four solid walls, the stick he used to clobber that pesky redhe-wait, wasn't there an unconscious body of a girl laying a few yards behind him just a minute ago? The purple suit's jaw dropped and he jerked his head around the yard to find no extra body lying anywhere.

"Well, we kinda...can't find her," the uniformed man informed nervously.

"Arg! How could you let her get away!" he accused indignantly in frustration, but quickly recomposed himself. "Oh, well. She probably just crawled back to her Mommy and cried about her little boo-boo!" the 'man' let out another fit of laughter as he walked away with his two guards, stepping on the discarded rice ball and smothering it with his shoe as he did.

"Only ten days left," the Swordsman reminded him.

"You still assume you'll make to the end of those ten days, ha ha ha!" he was soon gone as his laughter dimmed to nothing.

There was silence as the wind blew, kicking up the dust and the Pirate Hunter stayed slumped quietly against the pole staring off into space.

...

"I know you're there. He's gone, so quit hiding and get down."

"What did you mean by only ten days left'?" Yuuki asked as she jumped down from her atop the tall pole Zoro was tied to, landing gracefully on her feet.

"It's none of you're business, you nosy, little brat. So why don't you do what I said and-"

"Hey, Luffy! That little girl okay!" the teenager called to her friend, who was approaching.

"HEY! I WAS TALKING TO YOU!" the demon in human form shouted angrily as Yuuki turned her back to him.

"Yeah! You know, you do a pretty good job of playing dead!" Luffy commented as he grinned.

"I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or not," she spoke with her Captain now standing next to her. Zoro looked at the newcomer and Luffy stared back blankly.

"So, I hear you're a bad guy," Luffy directed at the restrained Bounty Hunter. Yuuki looked back and forth between the two before taking the opportunity to pick up her forgotten ribbon and stash it away in her sash. She'd done enough for now and it was her Captain's turn to meet this guy and see what he was worth, so she relaxed into the position of a spectator.

"Are you still here too?" he asked tiredly, hinting that he wanted them both gone.

"You're stuck out for all the world to see and nothing. Are you really all that strong?"

"Mind your own business," he spoke loudly.

Luffy sighed and patted his hat to his head as he walked toward Zoro. Meanwhile, Yuuki watched with mild interest, twirling and playing with her hair.

"If I were you I'd probably starve to death in three days."

"Make that 15 hours," his Vice-Captain muttered on the sidelines.

"I've got more spirit than you could ever have," he smirked at Luffy. "Which is how I'm going to survive this ordeal. This I swear."

"Ha, what a weirdo," Luffy thought aloud as he began to walk away, with Yuuki about to follow.

"Wait. Hold on," the captive requested, making the pair glance back at him curiously.

Zoro looked down near their feet. "Could you...pick that up for me?" he indicated the smashed rice ball in the dirt.

"You're gonna eat this?" the straw hat teen crouched and picked it up. "Because it's mostly a ball of mud," Luffy looked at the 'food' uncertainly with the other teenager's request in mind. Even he might have had a hard time swallowing _that_.

"Shut up and give it to me! Now!" he demanded with a lot more authority and disrespect than you'd expect from someone tied up and basically at the mercy of the scarred man.

Luffy just stared at him dumbly.

Yuuki sighed with her arms crossed, before snatching up the 'rice ball' from Luffy and walking back over to the green bandanna wearing man. Looks like her break didn't last long.

Luffy being Luffy may just not have been able to comprehend what true starving felt like (as opposed to how often he whined that he was 'starving' every time he was hungry) or the desperation one would have for _any_ food they could get in a situation like that. Luckily, Yuuki had enough brain power to sympathize and give this man what he wanted, instead of staring numbly into space.

Yuuki quickly threw the food into Zoro's mouth and watched him chew roughly and quickly, coughing a little as he swallowed.

"Should've listened to me," Luffy sung at Zoro with a teasing smile.

"It was good. Thanks for the food," Zoro said in a strangely gentler tone than either of the teenagers had heard from him yet. It was like he was talking to someone who wasn't there.

"I'll make sure to tell her that," Yuuki reassured him, smiling, as did Luffy.

S

"Really?" the little pig-tailed girl, now known as Rika, asked.

"That's right, he ate every last grain of rice there was," Luffy confirmed making the girl smile happily.

"He said that it was good and was really grateful for the food," Yuuki added.

"That's great," the child smiled, seeming to have recovered from earlier, which everyone was happy for.

"I wonder if Zoro is really as evil as everyone thinks that he is?" Coby pondered.

"He's not!" the girl defended looking at him. "He's good, because...he got himself punished. For us," she looked down timidly.

"You're uh...you're making no sense," Luffy stared at her from atop a barrel. Yuuki knocked him on the head from her slumped position against the wall and encouraged Rika to continue.

"Sorry, it's that dumb Helmeppo. He's the son of Captain Morgan…" she continued on to say that Zoro basically saved her and her mother from Helmeppo's abuse of authority as the Captain's son. It seemed that Zoro had him pretty much backed him into a corner until the blond freak said that he would hold Rika and her mom accountable for his actions. So, thus it brought up the deal of Zoro trading places with Rika and her mother and that if he endured it for a month then Helmeppo would let Zoro go as well as the ones he'd defended.

"It's been three weeks since that day… Helmeppo keeps punching and kicking him while he's tied up. He's being so unfair," she turned to Luffy. "I-I don't know how to help him," Rika started sobbing, but was cut off by loud crashing and breaking noises coming from her mother's diner.

They all headed inside to see Helmeppo barking orders at Rika's mother and acting like he was king of the hill or whatever he thought in that pompous so-called brain of his.

"I'm trying to think of something interesting to do since I'm bored out of my skull here. I suppose I can execute Zoro," he said laughing.

Luffy and Yuuki paused tersely, processing what they'd just heard. The bastard. He tied up Zoro and starved him for a month. Beating him up everyday when he was defenseless, and in the end he didn't even intend to keep his word? It was despicable. As the dots connected, they promptly charged forward without hesitation.

Luffy shot his fist square into Helmeppo's face, sending him flying towards the wall. Just when he was about to hit, Yuuki appeared on the other side of the room in a flash and clobbered him as well. Leaving him face first to the floor, rather than flying.

"You-you just hit me," he stated looking forward at Luffy, not noticing Yuuki's looming figure from behind, or registering the fact that he'd been hit twice.

The only reason the mushroom head even had this time to recover was because of the ever worrying Coby, who held Luffy back, trying to get him to stop.

"This guy is scum," Luffy gritted his teeth, staring at Helmeppo with a strange blankness that held underlying anger.

"You _actually_ hit me," he still held his cheek in disbelief. "I am Captain Morgan's son, you know!"

"No matter who's kid you are, that doesn't change the fact that your memory sucks," Yuuki mused sarcastically, refusing to go unnoticed by this pathetic excuse for a man this time.

"Ah! It's you!" he turned and pointed as he saw her. He then shrunk back a bit at seeing the deceptively calm look on her face, while her entire being radiated a promise of pain.

"You keep spouting this crap about having a strong daddy and using that to do whatever you want to the locals, but let me tell you: us. We're not from around here and so who your daddy is means squat," Yuuki gave him a look of utmost contempt.

"Yeah, like we care," Luffy retorted.

"You'll care after he executes you for this!"

"Why don't you just be a _man_ and fight!" Luffy took a step closer.

"You guys! Just ease off some, why are you trying to get on the Marine's bad side!" Coby yelled.

"I've made up my mind," Luffy said. Yuuki looked at him. "Today, Zoro joins our crew."

"I see." She turned to Rika asking, "Mind if I borrow something?"

S

Zoro leaned against his post, where he was tied up in the courtyard. He had made it almost all the way through the month, but still had a ways to go and it was truly beginning to drain on him. The Pirate Hunter found that, at most times, it was best to just sleep through everything. When he slept he was much less aware of his predicament and it killed time a lot better than anything else. I mean, what can you really do tied to a post for nearly three weeks but sleep? In these times, he lost himself in his dreams. He was not hungry, tired or bored. He just existed, unbothered by anything.

A time like that was now, as well as one when he dreamt of whatever his subconscious mind retrieved from his memories. Right now it was focused on that one place, that one person, that one promise and that one dream that had kept him going as far and long as he had. He was going to keep going no matter what and obtain what he most wanted in this world. Whether he had to go through the 7 hells and back, through the most excruciating pain imaginable or face the most difficult and deadliest of obstacles, he would live and reach his-

_Splash!_

"WAH!"

Zoro's head abruptly shot up as he yelled, but he soon calmed as the prickly feeling of needles on his skin began to numb over. Looking around frantically the Swordsman's eyes landed on two blurry figures he assumed to be people. Blinking rapidly to clear his vision, his eyes focused in on the scene. Yuuki stood in front him, slightly to his side, while Luffy stood a bit father away, staring at him, dead center.

"You guys again. Don't you have_ things_ to do?" Zoro rhetorically.

Yuuki answered anyway, "Yes."

"Well?" Zoro decided to humor them for a bit It's not like he had anything better to do.

"We're here, aren't we?"

"I'll untie you, but only if you promise to join our crew," Luffy said.

"Your _what_?"

"I run a pirate crew and we're looking for people to join up," he explained.

"No way! I'd never stoop to joining up with criminals," he turned his head defiantly. "Screw that business."

"And what's wrong with being a pirate?" Luffy had his fisted hands on his waist.

"Yeah," Yuuki asked with her hands behind her back.

"They're despicable."

"Well maybe you haven't met the right_ kind_ of pirate," Zoro eyed the green eyed girl curiously, but she betrayed nothing as she stared back.

"Whatever," he said, disregarding Yuuki's odd comment. "Like I'd ever want to join up with one anyway."

"Come on, give me a break. Everyone already knows you as some vicious Bounty Hunter always out for blood," Luffy spoke factually as if talking about something having to do with less carnage.

"People can say whatever they want about me, but I've never done a single thing in my life that I regret," he smirked in utter determination. "I _will_ make it through this challenge...and after that, I'll accomplish what I want."

"Yeah~, that's great," Luffy said, trying not to discourage him but also keep on subject. "But I've already decided that you're gonna be on my crew." He turned away, cross armed, looking at something nonexistent in the sky.

"What! You can't do that!" Zoro yelled in outrage.

"Unfortunately for you, 'can't' isn't a part of his vocabulary," Yuuki informed, staying off to the side.

"I hear you're one of the best Swordsman around," the scar-faced teenager stated.

"Well, I am! But that idiot Captain's son took mine away."

"Guess I'll just have to go get it back for you."

"What?" Zoro said to Luffy.

"So, if you want your sword, you're just gonna have to join my crew," Luffy concluded, proud of the plan he had thought of all by himself.

"NOW YOU'RE REALLY PISSING ME OFF!" the captive shouted, stretching his neck close enough to make sure Luffy heard him.

And he did, he just didn't care.

Luffy ran off laughing like a little kid getting a free day at the amusement park. With the look on his face he could probably get away with the facade too, but, due to his age, he was just laughing like a moron.

"Wait, he's actually gonna bust in there? _Alone?"_ he turned to Yuuki. He'd thought for sure that even if these two were stupid enough to pull off a stunt like this that they'd at least go at it together.

"Of course, Luffy may not have the best sense of direction, but he'll figure it out somehow," Yuuki replied. _'That's not what I meant_,' the Swordsman sweat-dropped, but speaking of which...

"Hey, genius. The base is in the _other_ direction," Zoro said as Yuuki pointed to where the Pirate Hunter meant to direct him. Said Pirate Hunter stared at her incredulously.

If she knew he was going the wrong way why didn't she say anything? Weren't they friends or something? All he could do was sigh at the promise their teamwork skills and abilities showed for this job.

"GUM-GUM ROCKET!" Luffy stretched passed them and Zoro's jaw dropped as he stared after the boy in shock.

"Wh-what the hell is this guy?" he inquired rhetorically, in bafflement.

Yuuki responded anyway, "He's a rubber man." He just stared at her in a daze at what just transpired. He soon snapped out of it as he heard a strangely familiar noise that sounded like hollow metal dropping to the ground. Turning to the source of noise, he saw what looked oddly similar to a-

"Is that a _bucket_?" he asked the redhead as she looked at him blankly.

"You mean you didn't notice it earlier?" she questioned.

'Earlier'? What did she mean? She'd only been there one other time and he surely would have noticed, had she been carrying anything, let alone a bucket, especially while he was watching her fight. Slumping his head while trying to figure out what she was talking about, the Swordsman spotted a puddle of wet dirt around his feet.

Now that couldn't be right, it had been sunny all day. There was no rain and any liquid would have been evaporated by now. And before you ask he did NOT relieve himself. Even if he could have, one learned that when you didn't eat for almost a month certain things didn't...process. At _all_.

Still confused, the demon turned his head up to see Yuuki right in front of him holding a bucket tipped over so far that water was about to spill over.

Finally it clicked and the two remained in dead silence.

...

"WHAT THE HELL KIND OF A SICK PERSON ARE YOU!" Zoro had never looked more like a blood thirsty demon bent on the carnage and mutilation of a single human being, Yuuki decided. "I'm tied up. Starving. And you HIT ME WITH A BUCKET OF FREEZING WATER!"

"But when I saw you out here before you looked like you had some serious heat stroke, so I thought bringing some cold water would help," she defended.

"And you just threw it on me while I was _sleeping_!" Zoro couldn't believe anyone could be such a dimwit.

"I thought the sooner you were cooled down the better, so...yes?" Yuuki muttered reluctantly, not wanting to get yelled at. This guy was going to be the first member of their crew and the last thing she wanted was for him to hold a grudge.

Zoro had no words to retort. Even if he did have the urge to bash her over the head, he was a bit too restrained for that, so instead, he simply steamed quietly and let his rage drain enough to speak and think coherently.

"Why didn't you go help your friend?" he asked, changing the subject to something that wouldn't cause him such a headache. "I'm sure he could use your help in there," _And away from me, _he thought. He honestly didn't expect the kid to even get inside let alone be able to find and bring back his swords. It didn't matter anyway, his month was almost up and then he'd be out of here and away from these ulcer-inducing people.

Setting down the bucket filled with water she said, "You were his pick, not mine. Therefore, he's gonna be the one to do most of the work. If he needs me, I'll step in, but until then, it's all him. Besides, he didn't ask for my help," she then sat on the upside down bucket she'd dropped earlier and brought her leg up to rest her ankle on her knee.

The way she spoke about Luffy made Zoro truly wonder if they were really friends or if she was just someone who he'd dragged into this just as he was trying to do to the Swordsman now.

"Did he dump the part of being on his crew on you too?" he voiced his thoughts.

"Huh? Well, sort of. It was actually a pretty convenient idea for the both of us. But this very easily could have been my crew instead of his if I'd wanted it to be," she told him.

"What?" Zoro had no idea what she was talking about.

"Well, it's like this. Luffy and I decided to both be pirates when we were really young. Since we had the same goal we thought we might as well be on the same crew. It was the first step towards our dreams," she paused. "But with the same dream, that meant we both had to be the Captain. And with only one crew, that wasn't going to happen. Luffy decided that we should fight for it, being his single-minded little self, but after a little while I let it go, and Luffy became the Captain you see today," she explained as she stared off into space, deep within her thoughts.

"You-you gave up your dream? Just like that? For his?" Zoro was slightly taken aback at hearing such story. It reminded him of his past with Kuina. They'd both wanted to be the greatest the world had seen, but they couldn't both have that title so they agreed to fight each other for it when the time came. Then Kuina's chance had been taken, so he'd declared that he would do it for both of thinking back, if it had been different, he didn't think he'd be able to give it up for her and neither would Kuina for him.

"Well, I knew Luffy wouldn't have been able to beat me at that time due to the circumstances. And anyway, even if I wanted to wait for him to get stronger, so that we'd at least be evenly matched, I knew he'd be too impatient to wait, so-"

"So, you gave up! You just gave up everything so easily for someone else without even trying!" the look in Zoro's eyes made Yuuki's lean back in surprise. It seemed that the demonic aura from their first meeting had come back full force and from the looks of it, it was quite possibly stronger.

"Yeah, but I didn't think-"

"What! You didn't think you could beat him when you got older! That's a pathetic excuse!" Zoro began to try and break his bindings as he still glared at Yuuki in contempt, who didn't know quite what to make of his reaction.

"I wasn't worried about that, it's just-"

"What could possibly make it okay to let your dreams go! Even if he was your best friend you never should've-dammit! Untie these ropes so I can kick your ass!" he demanded.

"Listen, it didn't-" Yuuki stood up.

"No, you listen! Skill is what makes someone strong, nothing else matters!"

"Wha-? What are you talking abo-?"

"Or maybe your dream meant so little to you that you could give it up so easily. Ha, what weakling you must be," Zoro stopped struggling and smirked mockingly. "Whatever, you'd never be able to reach your goal anyway with such weak resolve. You gave up on yourself. And what's worse is that you threw it all away for a scrawny little pu-AH!"

Zoro's head throbbed in pain severely, as he, yet again, was unable to settle the head injury he had gained by holding it in pain. Yuuki still had her hands clawed into his shirt, which she used to pull him forward. Shutting one of his eyes at the aching feeling of his head, the Pirate Hunter could see the bright red gash on Yuuki's forehead from where she had head butted him. She stared at him intensely. No hate, anger or frustration was there, just a piercing gaze.

After a few seconds she spoke.

"Who said anything about giving up my dream?"

"Huh? But you-AH!" she forced their foreheads back together again.

"We've both worked hard for what we want. And we still are, so don't you dare underestimate or belittle either of us," their heads clashed.

"Ow!"

"I haven't given up and never will. So, don't make any of your damn assumptions," the gash got larger and Zoro stifled a moan.

"No matter what, come hell or high water, we'll get a crew, set sail and find what we're looking for with or without you," Zoro shut his eyes tightly, awaiting the pain of another skull cracking attacking, but instead felt skin touch skin gently although still quite painfully due to the earlier skull bashes.

The Swordsman opened his eyes which widened at the unexpected sight. There was Yuuki, smiling softly very close to his face, with unexpected calm and peace. It was such an absolute difference from the looks she'd given him previously that the 180 change in attitude stunned him in surprise. "Bu~t, since Luffy really wants you to be a part of our crew, I'd rather go with you," she lifted her head and picked up her bucket as she walked away, leaving the tied up man in a perplexed daze.

S

"YAH! Ah, ah, ah!"

"Okay, so tell me where Zoro's sword is," Luffy commanded the purple suited sack of wussy that he was gripping.

"I'll tell you, I promise-oof! Just please stop dragging me across the carpet," said sack of wussy begged and the straw hat boy complied.

"Fine. Which way?"

"In my room, we just passed it," Helmeppo whimpered as he pointed down the hall. "Behind you on the left."

"Why didn't you say so earlier? Now we gotta go back," distinguishable annoyance was heard in Luffy's voice as he looked in the pointed direction.

"Don't move!" an armed marine commanded as a group of them appeared in the hall.

"Except for letting Helmeppo go," another added.

"No way," the intruder then pulled the body of a weak Helmeppo in front of him as a shield without so much as a blink. "But you can try shooting me if you want," he offered, probably not even caring if they did and made his shield usele-uh, useless_er_.

"No!" the blond waved his limbs frantically, "Please don't shoot, go!" he shouted as Luffy moved forward with his 'shield.' "Get the hell out of the way!"

S

"Stay the hell away from me!" Zoro yelled as Yuuki came back with a fresher bucket of water.

"Oh, don't be such so dramatic," Yuuki came closer with her bucket in tow.

"Why shouldn't I be! You're just gonna throw it on me again, right!" although Zoro had felt better a little after Yuuki had dumped that water all over him earlier, it wasn't something he wanted repeated. It was like you were in hell and then it suddenly froze over. Only the ice didn't make it any better, it just made you stuck in frozen hell until the fires began to melt the cold away bringing you right back where you started.

"I'm not gonna throw it on you. This is for drinking. The first one was to cool down your outside body temperature to something less lethal," she lifted the bucket in her hand to show him. "This one is to cool it on the inside and to rehydrate you."

Zoro quit the defensive when he heard that, but still looked reluctant. "That's great, but I don't need your help. I'm gonna be out of here soon, so why don't you listen to me for once and leave before the marines spot you?"

"One: I don't care about the marines and two: either you drink this water or I throw it on you again," she threatened casually. Zoro mentally shivered at the thought. "Think of it this way, you've got ten days left, right?"

Zoro nodded.

"Well that dirty rice ball won't be enough, even if you do live through the ten days. A person can live at least twice as long on water alone than they would on food, because the human body is mostly made up of water," she paused, waiting for a response. When he gave none she added, "In other words, the more of this water you drink, the less suffering you'll go through."

Zoro seemed to think this over and growled weakly in frustration, "Fine, but if you think I'm joining your pirate crew because of this you're sorely mistaken."

Yuuki seemed to have lost her hearing after she heard 'fine' and was already in front of the Swordsman with the bucket at his lips with water ready to spill over. Zoro hesitated for a moment, before opening his mouth, ready to receive it like a waterfall, but Yuuki pushed the rim to his mouth forcing the man to drink from it like a glass. After several large, inhuman gulps, to anyone who hadn't seen Luffy eat before, Yuuki pulled it away to let the Bounty Hunter breath.

Looking up, Zoro saw Yuuki beaming at him. It was a bright, good-natured smile that made the Swordsman wonder if this was really the same dimwit who threw water on him without a second thought. "See? It's good."

Zoro stared at her thoughtfully. All this time she'd just been trying to help him, albeit the help was not always well thought out, but the least he could do was not scream at her. Maybe she wasn't so bad after all, or maybe between the hit for yelling at the little girl and the many head butts, his mind was beginning to become a bit scrambled from all the cranium assaults. Either way, Zoro felt he owed _something_ to the pirate duo for trying to give him (unasked for) help. "Thank-"

_Splash!_

"Coby? What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to set Zoro free, you have to get out of here," the boy said to the man, who looked much more demon-like at the moment than he had before the appearance of the wannabe marine.

"Damn. It. Kid," he ground out with clenched teeth and shivered. "C-cold," Coby had run behind Yuuki and over to one of Zoro's ropes, making the redhead loose enough attention on what was in her hands to accidentally tilt the bucket at an angle that nailed the captive right on his head with the cool liquid. "That maniacs gonna kill you for what you're doing right now," he was attempting to scare the boy more at this time, rather than advise him, due to his current mood.

"I can't stand to watch the marine's behave like this anymore," the pink headed boy ignored Zoro's threat, which surprised Yuuki, as he tried to undo the knot job on the ropes that bound the teenager. "A true marine should be honorable."

"Look kid I can't leave," now that (yet another) person had come to try to somehow set him free, Zoro came to his senses and took action. He hadn't said anything before to the odd pair, because anything that had to do with releasing him was only talk so far, but now that someone was actually untying him Zoro couldn't sit quietly. "I got ten days left. And then they're-"

"Well, not quite. They're gonna execute you tomorrow," he said, rather nonchalantly for a Coby.

"They're _what_?"

"Helmeppo never intended to honor your agreement. He planned on killing you from the start...which made Luffy and Yuuki really angry, so they just knocked him out," he stated.

"They did?" In his mind the Pirate Hunter couldn't see either of the two doing that. For one they barely knew him, so why did they care? Second, didn't they think for a second of the repercussions of punching out a spoiled brat, whose father was in charge of the military base?

Zoro was starting to see a line between the teenager's actions of insanity and something more. He looked at Yuuki, who met his gaze with crossed arms.

"What?" she asked.

"I thought you said since your friend is the one who wanted me on your crew, it's his problem. So, why did you punch out the idiot Captain's son when you heard about our broken deal? What do you care?" he inquired.

"Don't read too much into it," she said dismissively. "All I did was stop Luffy from wrecking Rika's mom's restaurant more than that brat already did. Luffy would have knocked out a wall with the guy if I didn't stop him from flying." Yuuki paused in thought. "I also couldn't pass up the chance giving him a good smack to the face while I had the opportunity."

Yuuki began walking forward to try and help Coby untie the man.

"Now that the Marines are mad, they're dead set on catching Luffy and Yuuki," Coby continued. He turned to Zoro sympathetically. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna ask you to become a pirate though." Going back to the knots, "But I hope you'll help have a lot of strength you can offer." Zoro looked forward pondering the boy's words. "These two are the only ones who can actually save you from execution...and of course, you're the only one who can save them from a similar fate."

"End of the line," a voice called out making everyone freeze and turn to see guns pointed at them by Marines who were backed up by, who they all assumed was, their commanding officer that...had an axe for a hand? "For the crime of treason against me, I sentence you all to die where you stand," Morgan said angrily.

Coby chose this time to suddenly revert back to his panicky self as Yuuki stood her ground firmly, looking defiantly at the law enforcers.

"And just who are you?"

"The famous Axe-Hand Morgan, of course," he stated pridefully.

She blinked, "Axe-what who?"

Coby stared at the Vice-Captain in confusion, momentarily forgetting his fear. What was she saying? Yuuki knew who he was. With him mentioning the Marine Captain in town, being read the notice by Helmeppo from his father and hearing continuously that he was the mushroom head's father and the cause of the town's problems, how did she not remember? Unless she was suffering from sudden amnesia.

The marine growled at the butchering of his title. "That's Axe-Hand Morgan!"

"Hm," she tapped her finger to her lips and lazily stared off into space in thought. "Never heard of you. Must not be that great," she shrugged.

"I happen to rule these parts and squish any and all insignificant bugs that stand in my way, such as yourselves," he went on, to expose what power he held over them.

"If we're so insignificant, why bother squashing us? Are you that afraid of any uprising?" It was then that Coby saw it. Even though she looked at the blond man blank and disinterested there was that mischievous gleam in her eye that he'd seen back on the cruise ship when she'd iced Alvida's feet to the deck. _'She's trying to goad him,'_ he realized. At that moment, Morgan began turing red in the face and looked ready to murder someone. _'And she's doing a good job of it too! Man, Yuuki! You're going to get us all killed!'_

"I fear nothing! Besides, no one would ever have the gall to challenge me," he declared as his irritation and anger was rising.

"With the way you run things, I'm surprised it hasn't happened already," she muttered loudly, looking away. Zoro also saw what was happening and, despite the fact that he was tied up and at the mercy of the winner of this fight, he had to bit back the laughter building in his chest and the amused smirk that was threatening to adorn his face at seeing Morgan get played.

"You dare question my leadership!" he yelled outraged.

"You dare question my questioning!" she mimicked his tone back with a straight face. At this point, even the blond finally saw what she was doing and unexpectedly smirked at her.

"I see, you're stalling for time. You've been pulling some interesting moves around here. What is this?" he gestured to where Zoro and Coby were. "Some kind of poorly executed coo? You three planned with the Straw Hat!" he accused.

"Wo~w, that is pretty presumptuous based only on the fact that we're standing in a yard with a convict."

"I've always fought alone like a _real_ man does...not like a coward, who hides behind his band of expendable cronies," Zoro bantered, but quite offended that Morgan would think he'd conspire with others to get out of his agreed sentence early.

"Roronoa Zoro. Don't you dare underestimate me. You may be a strong fighter, but under my authority you're just a rat we throw out with the trash," he retorted. "And you, you're a quick thinker and a smooth talker, I'll give you that, but that was an amateur's shot and I'm no amateur. Take aim!" he yelled at the soldiers, who gripped their guns.

_'No,_' Zoro was sweating, wondering how they were going to get out of this, _'I can't afford to die here_.' Suddenly the memory of _her_ flashed in his mind and her words resounded in his ears like a ghost.

_'You're _weak_ Zoro_.'

Just then, Yuuki stepped forward.

"Zoro," she spoke softly, breaking him out of his trance. "You stayed out here for three weeks of torture. Most people would have resigned themselves to death. But even now you're still holding on." Yuuki didn't turn to face him and the Swordsman was asking himself just where was she going with this when they were all about to be shot bloody? "I don't know why you did it, but if you're that determined to fight to stay alive, for whatever your reason may be," Yuuki glanced back to see him with determination. "Then I will fight for your life as well."

With that, she vanished without a trace.

The first few seconds he saw her gone, Zoro felt immense confusion and even somewhat betrayed. _What the hell! She brought me water to help me endure the last few days, lectured me on never giving up, and just said she'd defend me and the next instant she high tailed it out of here leaving us both to die!_

Coby sank to his knees feeling it even deeper and even more perplexed than Zoro, _Yuuki...?_

Neither was given more time to think as Morgan yelled, "FIRE!" the sound of glass shattering could be heard just before the boom of multiple gun shots went off and Zoro squeezed his eyes shut. When he heard continual gun fire, but felt no pain, his eyes snapped open to see Luffy shielding them all, taking the full brunt of the bullets.

"What!" he yelled at the appearance of the teenager, who had three swords strapped to his back.

"No!" Coby watched in horror with tears in his eyes.

"Straw Hat!" Morgan shouted angrily at the pirate's appearance.

Everyone had watched in awe as Luffy's body began to stretch out in the path of the bullets where they had hit him.

The scar-faced Captain smirked. "See ya!" he yelled as his body bounced the shots back at the shooters and inches past Morgan's face.

The inhuman being laughed excitedly. "That won't work on me! Told you I was strong," he taunted to nobody in particular and laughed at his own antics.

"Your may be strong, but your aim needs work," said a voice. Following the trail of the voice, they saw Yuuki, high up in the air, standing on what looked like a storm cloud. "STORM DRIVE!" her hands whipped forward and a gray, almost black substance shot out aimed straight for the many uniforms.

Various yells and cries were heard as the men were bowled over by the massive storm. When it cleared, Yuuki leaped to the ground, landing on her feet, and it revealed only Morgan was left standing. He had has arms crossed in front of him and glared at the group, with all of his army laid out around his feet, on the ground.

"What took you so long?" Yuuki commented.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault. The liar guy took me the wrong way the first time," Luffy defended, blandly.

"Well, I'm glad you at least made it before the gun fire."

"What the-? Who the hell are you?" Zoro asked in shock of what he'd just witnessed. True he'd seen the display of the red vested teen's powers earlier, but that still didn't take away the shock of seeing it again so soon. And Yuuki, how was she _standing_ on a cloud? A guy repelling bullets back with his body and a girl shooting storms out of her hands? What the hell man?

The two turned to the baffled captive.

"Kou S. Yuuki," she answered.

"My name's Monkey D. Luffy. And we're gonna be King of the Pirates," Luffy smiled, giving him thumbs up.


	3. Take it or Leave it

**Disclaimer:** Nobody owns One Piece, but Oda-sama, we clear? All we have is the right to screw around with what he makes.

Chapter 3

"You're gonna become King of the Pirates? Right, you must be completely out of your rubbery mind," Zoro said, not convinced. "And you!" he directed at Yuuki remembering their earlier conversation. "This is your dream? To become King of the Pirates with him?"

"I'd technically be the Queen due to my gender, but basically, yeah."

"Do either of you have any idea what that means?"

"King of the Pirates means King of the Pirates, how can it mean anything other than that?" Luffy said with confidence.

"Of course. We're not stupid... well, I'm not stupid."

Everyone, Marines included, had halted upon hearing their declaration.

"Yeah, when they first told me it was shocking, but they're completely serious!" Coby added with admiration in his eyes. "That's how they are, I suppose. 'Cause they actually seem to have every intention of becoming the rulers of the pirates, and obtaining the world's ultimate treasure: The One Piece," he continued, seeming to encourage their goal. Yuuki smiled and Luffy grinned at this adding his signature laugh.

Zoro's eyes were just narrowed in disbelief.

"Here's what I promised you," Luffy took the three swords from his back and presented them to Zoro. "There's three. I couldn't tell which one was yours, so I just took all of them."

"All of them belong to me," he answered deeply. "I use the Santōryū; the Three Swords style," he explained to Luffy shifting a little, probably itching to take hold of them himself.

The rubber man paused before shoving the swords toward Zoro, smiling. "Take'em already. Just know that if you fight with us now, you'll be a government defying villain. So it's either that...or you're left out here killed by the marines excision-style," he cautioned simply.

"What are you, the son of the devil? It doesn't matter, because if I don't choose your side I'll just end up dead on these sticks. So, let's do it," Zoro said smirking at Luffy.

Luffy yelled in victory.

"Ha, _ha!_ So you're finally gonna join my crew," the energetic teen pumped his hands in front of him, still holding the swords. "This is the best thing ever," Luffy laughed.

"You always get your way, don't you?" she murmured stepping forward to try and finish what she'd been doing before the Marines had gotten in the way.

Luffy may not have noticed, but they had more important things to do before rejoicing at the discovery of their first mate.

"Will you quit celebrating already and get these ropes off me!" the captive yelled, voicing one of the problems that slipped Luffy's never-planning mind.

Meanwhile, the government enforcers were still sore from Yuuki's attack and numb at the pirate pair's previous display. They pondered what happened, but came up with no answers until their superior informed them of the mysterious properties and power of the devil fruits.

"Come on, hurry," Coby rushed us them as Luffy tugged uselessly and Yuuki tried fruitlessly to undo the knots.

"They. Got. These. Things on here. Tight," Luffy grunted, pulling on the ropes.

"Come on, quit screwin' around," said the Swordsman, impatiently.

"They may be pests, but these marines sure know how to tie a knot," Yuuki admitted as she worked at the ropes.

As the Marine Captain had continued his lecture of those who possessed devil fruit powers, the uniforms only grew more apprehensive to fight them. However, thoughts of retreating were soon crushed as Morgan 'persuaded' them to fight with his completely nonthreatening command for them to attack, his easy talk of execution and the tall man raising his axe-hand forward. Suddenly the Marines charged, having gained back their 'courage' or rather their fear of their Captain.

Zoro, Coby and Yuuki stared at the mob alertly, while Luffy still had his attention on Zoro's bindings.

"That's funny, the knots got tighter instead of looser," Luffy scratched the back of his head in wonder when a light bulb went off in Yuuki's head. She stepped away from Zoro's bindings and turned to face the legion of marines. Resolutely, she sped off, charging the hoard without a word.

"Hey! Wait!" the Swordsman called after her, seeing the girl as the only capable one to untie him. The pink haired kid just wasn't strong enough and the her so-called 'Captain' was a completely clueless nimrod, but his words were lost in the mass of the uniform's yells. This was the second time she'd done something like this and, while he knew she wasn't abandoning him this time, he still had no idea what she was doing. Now that he thought about it, that tended to happen every time he saw her. "Gimme one of my damn swords _now_!" Zoro demanded frantically of Luffy.

They got closer and closer still, yelling in either spirit or fear, one couldn't quite tell. As they did, Yuuki bolted passed them so fast she went unnoticed by the army. Only did one single Marine acknowledge her passing. Although, it was kind of hard not to when she brought him with her, clotheslining him and then tackling him to the ground, knocking him unconscious in the process. However, unknown to her, she'd accidentally clobbered another man with her fist. With his sword raised in the air as he was hit, the weapon flew up into the air without its owner at great speeds.

Coby screamed, "Luffy! Look!" as he saw how close the Marines were.

"Hm?" Luffy looked up, surprised.

Coby screamed again.

In an instant, Zoro had rushed forward, having somehow been released by invisible hands. His back was turned to the law enforcers, while he held all three of his swords in his hands and mouth, poised to block their attacks.

"Roronoa Zoro," Morgan said, in shock at the man's power.

Coby stared in awe as Luffy was dazzled by how cool Zoro's actions were. Then a thought stuck the vision impaired boy. Wasn't Zoro still tied up when they charged? So how could he have gotten free if both his arms were still bound? Looking at the post where the pirate hunter had been, Coby saw a pile of cut ropes he assumed was the handy work of Zoro. Continuing his search Coby looked at the post and screamed at what he saw. A sword was lodged in the wooden cross of the horizontal log, very close to where one of Zoro's arms had been. And right next him! Wherever it came from it had only missed slicing the former cabin boy in half by less than a foot!

Coby's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he dropped to the ground numbly at the implications of where the the sword could have landed.

"Got it," Yuuki said, having stolen the sword of the marine she'd knocked down. "Hey guys! I got a sword to cut Zoro fre-" the Vice-Captain glanced back to where Coby and Luffy were, only to see Zoro gone. Scanning the field fairly confused, Yuuki spotted Zoro holding several marines at bay with his swords and stared for a few seconds, unblinking, as her mind processed. Finally her eyebrows knitted together in annoyance. "Fine," she huffed. "I see that you have things all under control. So I'm sure you guys can deal with this one yourselves," Yuuki dropped the sword in her hand and formed a storm cloud underneath her, lifting herself from the ground.

Riding over to the post Zoro had previously occupied, she stopped momentarily to yank out the sword she'd unknowingly caused to be lodged in the wood and threw it over her shoulder carelessly. She dispersed her clouds and dropped to sit on one of the arms leaning forward with crossed legs.

She'd thought, to hell with it, and decided to just sit back and watch the show.

The marines stared at the freed demon in fright as he glanced behind at them. "Make one move and you die," he cautioned, passed the sword in his mouth.

The marines cried at their predicament and whimpered. "He's scary."

He then turned to Luffy and glanced at Yuuki in the corner of his eye. "Today I officially become a criminal having fought the marines. So, I'll become a pirate. That I can promise you, but I want you to know one thing," he gave them both a steely look. "While I'm with you the only thing I dedicate myself to is fulfilling _my_ ambition."

"Which is...?" Luffy inquired.

"To be nothing less than the Greatest Swordsman. If somewhere along the way I have to give that up, then I want you accept responsibility. After which you get to apologize to me," Zoro said narrowing his eyes.

"'The World's Greatest Swordsman.' Sounds pretty good," he thought.

Yuuki had finished steaming, but was still going to let the guys handle this. She stared at Zoro as if she was looking for something. "That's what you fight for, huh?" she asked rhetorically.

Zoro retorted anyway, "Yeah, is there a problem with that?"

"And you thought we were out of our minds," she muttered, poking at his earlier insult of their goal. "And here you are Mr. 'Future Greatest Swordsman in the World.' Sounds to me like you're a just as much of a dreamer as us."

Zoro inwardly admitted it was pretty hypocritical, but on the outside he held his ground, not once looking away, to show he would defend what he believed in.

The storm user smirked as if she knew he knew she was right, but lost it as she closing her eyes almost defiantly. And for a moment Zoro was expecting her to reject him as a part of their crew and argue with Luffy. "Well then, the Captain has spoken," she open her eyes. Moving to rest her chin on one drawn up knee, she gave the Swordsman a bright smile. "Welcome to the crew future Greatest Swordsman in the World. Just remember, there's no backing out now."

"I've never backed out of something once I decided to do it, and I'm not about the start now," he said, rising to her challenge.

"Let's hope not."

"The King and Queen of the Pirates wouldn't have any less then the best on their crew," Luffy pronounced.

"Big talker," he taunted. "From this point on, no matter if I'm a criminal or not, I _will_ spread the name Zoro throughout the world," he proclaimed.

"What are you standing there frozen for? I want you to kill all of them right NOW!" Morgan shouted at his men making them all sweat fearfully.

"You might wanna duck," Luffy warned as he lifted his leg. "GUM-GUM WHIP!" he swung his leg out, sweeping the marines away as Zoro lowered himself to dodge the attack and prevent his swords from cutting his new Captain.

Morgan stared incredulously at his men sprawled out along the ground.

"Yes! You knocked them all down," Coby cheered. Yuuki leaned back nodding attentively, but not quite as enthusiastic as the wannabe marine.

"You wanna tell me exactly what you two are?" Zoro stood up, staring in the direction of the Captains.

"I'm just a guy who ate the Gum-Gum Fruit," Luffy moved his leg to make a rubbery sound.

"Storm-Storm fruit for me," a few dark clouds rose off her hand like smoke from a fire.

"Gum-Gum? Storm-Storm? What the hell kind of fruits did you two eat?" he asked through the sword still in his mouth.

"Just ones that ya give powers, nothing special," Yuuki said from her perch.

Zoro seemed to process this briefly before a certain axe hand's voice suddenly boomed throughout the area.

"This is a direct order: every marine that just spouted weakness pull your gun out and shoot yourself. I can't do anything with weak soldiers." Apparently some of the soldiers began to fear for their lives and started trying to persuade their superior to retreat. This didn't bode well with him.

"What babies. This will be easy," Zoro got into a fighting position, ready to fight.

It didn't take Luffy long to sprung forward at the speed of light with one target on his mind. At first, Coby seemed to have tried to stop the Pirate Captain, but exhibited a different tune as he yelled, "Bring those marines crumbling to their knees!"

As he said this, Yuuki glanced over at the big, pink headed scaredy cat, who'd looked to have gained a strength he didn't have before. The redhead observed with ease the fight between the two Captains on opposite sides of the law. Whenever Morgan swung his axe Luffy dodged and whenever Luffy attacked Morgan blocked. Of course a majority of these blocks were done with the use of the Marine Captain's face, but hey, a block was a block.

The axe handed man was now on his back with Luffy lifting him by the shirt. "Call yourself a Marine, but you destroyed my friend Coby's dream!" the blond again cleverly blocked Luffy's fist with his face. Luffy raised his arm again ready to finish it when-

"Straw Hat! Stop right there. Look at what I got!" Helmeppo yelled.

When she heard this Yuuki felt a hand on her arm begin to pull on her. Quickly, she grabbed the appendage and violently whipped the body it was attached to forward...and straight into an unsuspecting Coby. _'Oops,_' Yuuki thought, sweating a bit, when she saw the results of her instinctual flipping of Helmeppo into poor Coby.

"Damn. You!" the younger blond directed at the Vice-Captain as he was sprawled on the ground on top of Coby. But after recovering he was soon aiming a gun to the head of a wannabe marine, who was torn between fear of getting shot and anger at being literally thrown into this situation by one of his so-called friends.

_'Sorry,_' Yuuki mentally apologized as she dropped from her seat on the post.

"Now stop before I blow his head off!" Helmeppo went on as if he hadn't just failed miserably to get a hostage and had to switch, because his first attempt had flipped him.

Luffy continued to pummel Morgan.

"Are you stupid or something! I said stop! Pay attention to me here! I have a hostage you might wanna look at!" he yelled louder.

"Helmeppo's crazy," a marine said.

"Hey," Zoro called Luffy.

"Hm?" Luffy finally took notice of Helmeppo.

"Oh, come on. There's no need for hostages or threats," Yuuki said as if talking to an upset four-year-old while she approached the two casually.

"You especially stay away or else!" he commanded.

"You're not still bitter about the the whole flipping you deal, are you? Or the punching you in the face? Or slapping you 'cause you were trying to hurt that little girl?" she guessed, only adding fuel to the fire.

"If you value your scrawny little friends life then you won't move a muscle! I'm serious! One move and I'll shoot him, I swear!"

The trembling boy looked from Luffy to Yuuki, and the girl finally stopped. The wannabe marine looked about ready to cry until Luffy shot him a smile that somehow tapped into the courage deep inside of Coby.

"Luffy listen! Don't let anything that happens to me stop you, no matter what. Even if I die!" he said confidently.

Luffy grinned. "Of course, you got it. You hear that you big idiot? Coby is ready to die by your hand," Luffy began walking towards the two, ready to attack.

Yuuki slowly crouched as if she were getting ready to run.

"Don't you move!" he warned, but Luffy didn't hesitate in his strides. "I said don't move or I'll shoot!" he yelled.

"GUM-GUM…" the vision impaired boy yelled to warn Luffy as Morgan lifted his axe behind him, intending to slice the pirate while his back was turned.

"Time's up! For I am fearless Marine Captain Axe-Hand Morgan!" Zoro shoved one of his swords back in his mouth as Helmeppo clutched his hostage tighter.

"FLASH…"

Helmeppo pointed the gun closer to Coby's head, "Daddy! Hurry up and kill him already!"

"PISTOL!"

"STORM!"

Luffy let his fist stretch forward as Yuuki's body burst into a storm and whipped passed a screaming Helmeppo, while Zoro shot forward with his swords in his hands and mouth. Coby's form disappeared from the mushroom heads grip before he was slammed in the face by Luffy's fist and Morgan's attack was cut short by Zoro's.

"Nice one," Luffy complimented Zoro as the Marine Captain's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell backwards to the ground, passed out.

Luffy retracted his arm and turned his head slightly to Zoro. "Thank you."

"I'm just doing my job, Captain," Zoro said, appearing to have accepted his new position with less reluctance and forced resignation than before.

Hearing this widened Luffy's grin.

"Are you okay, Coby?" she asked, switching her attention to the boy in her arms with concern.

"Yeah. I'm fine," he mumbled tersely as his eyes were covered by the glare on his glasses from the sun. He was now a cute shade of red from being held bridal style by a girl as well as from embarrassment.

Yuuki wasn't so sure about how sincere his answer was at seeing how red he was in the face. She supposed it must have been from his overdose of panic for the day along with the heat of the sun. The female pirate still felt a little bad about getting him into that situation, but if he was truly fine then she'd done her job.

Coby sighed in relief as he was set on the ground and at seeing the yard with all dangerous persons knocked out.

Zoro put his swords away as he faced the marines, "If there's anyone else who wants to step forward and fight us then do it now."

Yuuki had expected them to be running in fear, but instead they threw their hats and swords in the air, rejoicing...which, if you really think about it, wouldn't be the smartest thing to do since gravity would eventually take over, sending the sharp objects back down to the earth and possibly into somebody. Then as if the whole sword thing weren't unexpected enough, the law enforcers began celebrating like maniacs.

The redhead had her hands on her hips in confusion and sighed. More bizarre people.

"That's weird. Looks like they're all happy that their Captain was beaten," Luffy said watching them. His Vice-Captain couldn't agree more.

"They must have been afraid of him for a long time before we showed up," Coby deduced.

"Hey, thanks. You really saved our Captain there," Yuuki walked over and clamped her hand on Zoro's shoulder behind him in appreciation. Zoro then grunted loudly in pain, "Hey, are you-? Wah!"

Zoro suddenly fell backwards. Yuuki had tried to turn and get away, but wasn't quick enough and became pinned down by the larger teenager's body.

"Zoro! Are you okay! What's wrong!" Coby shouted in panic mode.

"Me? Oh, I'm fine, Coby. Probably just a cracked spine and maybe a broken rib or two. Not to mention that my lungs are being crushed as I speak. Don't you worry about me," Yuuki croaked out from underneath the fallen Swordsman. She supposed she deserved this. 'Payback's a bitch' never felt more true.

Zoro opened his eyes blearily. "I'm just…hungry," he wheezed weakly.

S

"Woo! Heh, heh, I am stuffed," Zoro laughed with a big smiling on his face.

They had brought him to Rika's mother's restaurant after Luffy and Coby had rolled him off of Yuuki's back, which soon recovered, allowing her to carry him there. He'd taken his bandanna off not too long after they'd reached the establishment, revealing his green hair. It surprised Yuuki at first, but oddly, the color fit him. As for Luffy, the scarred teenager hadn't batted an eye at his appearance and Coby...well, the boy had pink hair. He was in no position to be surprised. "Having not eating for three weeks, I was ready to gnaw through my boot straps," the Swordsman confessed.

Rika and Coby laughed happily at seeing this new, more carefree side of the Pirate Hunter,

"Heh, I can't believe you're finished. Light weight," Luffy, who was still eating, taunted his new crew mate.

Zoro looked, him a bit unnerved at the teen. "How the hell can you have a bigger appetite than a guy who hasn't eaten in weeks," he questioned, pointing to the plates that had been emptied by Luffy.

"I guess it tastes too good, I guess, right?" he turned to his other companions for support.

"Uh, yeah. It's great," Coby looked at the chef of their meal sheepishly. "Thanks for fixing it for us."

"My pleasure. After all you guys did save the town," she beamed at them gratefully. However, when she caught sight of Yuuki's plate, it slowly faded. "Aren't you going to have more than that? You didn't eat very much."

Although they had taken down the town terror, Rika's mother still saw the four as children. So her motherly instincts immediately kicked in when she saw that Yuuki had only gone through half of her first plate. She may have been over thinking it, but in contrast to her other two companions who'd eaten enough to make a mountain of dishes, it concerned her. Even Coby had had seconds.

Yuuki paused in braiding her hair and looked up at the mother. "No thank you. The food tasted good, but I'm full," she paused as she looked at her plate. "I probably won't be able to finish this."

"Are you sure? We've got plenty, it's no trouble at all." As a cook and a mother no one was going to go hungry on her watch.

"I appreciate the offer, but I'm stuffed," she told her. She paused to look at her plate and said, "Hey, Luffy. Eat this for me," holding the plate out behind her without looking.

"Okay," he said with a stuffed mouth and stretched his arm back to take it without his food leaving his sight.

"He may be a bottomless pit, but when Luffy's around, food never goes to waste," the Vice-Captain spoke as she finished with her hair.

"You're the most amazing man I've ever met," Rika decided as she gazed admirably at Luffy and his display of his rubber powers.

He smiled, food still in his mouth. "Yeah. I am, I know," he said without modesty. "And I'll be even more amazing when I'm King of the Pirates with Yuuki and we have the One Piece," he looked at Zoro. "Oh, and the best crew on the seas," he added.

"So, how many others have gathered for your crew besides me?" Zoro asked brightening at the topic.

Yuuki looked to Zoro curiously, as did Luffy.

"You guys told me that you were in the middle of gathering together the crew for your ship," he elaborated. "And if you're gonna be King and Queen of the Pirates I gotta assume you've got some waiting in the wings."

"Nope. Just you and Yuuki," Luffy answered.

"And I'm the Vice-Captain, so I may not technically count," Yuuki pondered aloud.

Zoro looked at the two in shock. "Just-" he pointed from Luffy to Yuuki to himself dumbly.

"Yep, it's just us," the straw hat wearing teen confirmed.

"So you, her and I are what amounts to an _entire_ pirate crew?"

"Well, what's wrong with that? We're a couple of strong guys. Yuuki's pretty good too."

"We've only just started looking for our crew. Hell, we just left our island a few days ago. You can't expect us to be that far yet," Yuuki explained.

Zoro nodded, giving them that, and put his elbow on the table. "Kay~, but _please_ tell me you guys have a ship," he asked hoping he had something to work with.

"Sure do, it's right there," Luffy pointed out the window to a small raft in the docks.

Zoro leaned against the window looking at it, hoping that his eyes were fooling him. But after much scrutiny he concluded he had perfect vision.

"You're _kidding_."

"Nope, but we'll have enormous one before long. Just you wait and see," Luffy said so sure of himself.

Zoro burst out laughing, which unnerved Yuuki since it made the former Pirate Hunter look like an escaped mental patient. "And how is that?" he challenged.

"With a great, big pirate flag on top," Luffy stared into space and Yuuki could already tell that they'd lost Luffy in la la land. "I can't wait," Luffy said excitedly, ignoring Zoro.

Zoro turned to Yuuki for help, but she just shrugged. "You're guess is as good as mine when it comes to what goes on in that head of his," she supplied.

"I think that Luffy was born without that part of the brain that allows the rest of us to plan out what we have to do," Coby mused as Zoro was palming his face in frustration.

"Oh, he can plan," Yuuki contradicted. "He just doesn't do it until he has to."

"Can't believe I let myself get suckered into having _him_ as my Captain," Zoro muttered.

"This is what I meant when I said there was no backing out. You agreed to be a part of our crew without any idea of what you were getting yourself into. So now you're stuck with it," she said, unsympathetically. When Zoro looked like he was going to have a serious migraine from frustration she added, "Well, look on the bright side. This can't be as bad as being left to the marines and done away with, can it?" Yuuki offered.

"I guess," he grunted begrudgingly, but privately he was wondering if he should have weighed his options more back at the marine base.

"Hey, we'll have a ton more members in no time," Luffy consoled. This did nothing for the anxiety of his first mate.

"Speaking of unbelievable, just what the hell were you pulling when you escaped onto your little cloud back at the base when they were pointing guns at us?" he asked Yuuki. "How did you know your friend would get down there in time to bounce them back?" That was one little near-betrayal that had been on Zoro's mind for a bit.

Having the straw hat come in to save the day seemed like pure luck on their part, but before he even got there, Yuuki had, unknowingly to them at the time, shot into the sky, leaving them defenseless. It may have been a ploy on her part to bowl them over before anyone was shot, but did she risk their lives on a chance or did she actually have a plan? It's not like he didn't trust her or anything. After seeing both pirates fight he felt confident in their loyalty, but he was still curious.

"In all honestly, I was waiting for Luffy to show up. When I was stalling for time by egging metal jaw on, I trying to see if I could spot him. When I did he seemed ready to sling shot himself down and I made my getaway. As you might imagine, I'm not the best at blocking multiple bullets. So, I left that to Luffy and got in the air to get a better angle at all the marines. He may take a bullet better than me, but I can wipe out a crowd better than him. Putting it simply, we both did the things we were better at."

Zoro, paused, thinking her explanation through. That made sense. There was no way she'd be able to do anything about the bullets. And if she'd stayed on ground level, she'd have probably hit Luffy too, if he was in front of them all, protecting them from the gun shots.

"Also," she rubbed her neck, embarrassed. "I didn't want to get shot."

Zoro's jaw dropped at that and he stared at her. So she _did_ risk all their lives!

"Luffy, where are you and your crew planning on traveling when you leave here?" Rika asked curiously as the new First Mate fumed with contained anger.

"You mean it's not obvious? We're headed straight for the Grand Line." Coby spit his drink out suddenly.

"No! Have you completely lost you're mind! You have three crew members! There's no way you're equipped to handle the Grand Line, Luffy!" Coby yelled.

"I've heard about it, but I didn't know it was such an awful place," Rika shared to Coby.

Coby then went on to explain the geography of the world and how, of the world's two oceans, there was one strip of land that cut across it called the Red Line and blah, blah, blah. Yuuki sort of tuned this stuff out as she'd already known the whole thing and reiterating this stuff annoyed her. He then went on about what a terrible place the Grand Line was and then caught the redhead's attention back when he talked about Gold Roger's legacy of conquering the Grand Line and hiding his treasure.

"I heard story about it from people passing through." Rika's mom said. "The customers say that no one who has ever entered the Grand Line come out of that place alive."

"Which is really too bad, 'cause that's where the One Piece is said to be and that's exactly where we're going," Luffy's voice held no room of argument.

Having now calmed down, Zoro said, "I guess we have to live with it." He then leaned back in his chair, shrugging off any sign of resistance.

"No! You can't agree! Yuuki back me up here," he turned to the female pirate in his last attempts at finding a voice of reason.

Yuuki rested her head on her fist thoughtfully. "I'm all for going Luffy. You know that, but we seriously need to look into getting more crew members before we go. There are just some essential players we don't have," she explained.

"Oh! Like a musician!"

"Or a real navigator for starters. I can get us around for the time being, but it's not my specialty."

"Listen to me!" the wannabe marine shouted.

"What do you care? You're not going with us, are you?" Zoro asked Coby, who's attitude deflated somewhat.

"No, but I still worry. Is it so wrong to care about you guys?" Coby said in concern. "Luffy, Yuuki and I haven't known each other for years or anything, but they're still my friends. Wouldn't you say?" he nearly pleaded with Yuuki and Luffy.

Luffy and Yuuki smiled reassuringly. "I thought we already covered this."

"Of course. We may have to part ways, but we'll always be friends," Luffy promised.

"We've had some good times together," Yuuki admitted. "And that will never change, no matter what," she told him resolutely.

Coby smiled and seemed to have his mind drawn to something else. "When I was just a little kid I never had any friends, much less anyone who would bother fighting on my behalf. So, I always tried my hardest to never fight for anything," he informed as Luffy, Zoro and Yuuki stared at him attentively. "But the three of you taught me a lesson that I could never learn on my own: how to live for what I believe in. So, I've decided to make my one childhood dream a reality, and I'm going to join the Marines," Coby said as he raised his head and clutched his hands in determination.

"Then don't you think you should be a little more concerned with your situation?" Zoro told him. Coby stared at the pirate in confusion. "I mean, you did spend two years on Alvida's pirate ship. Even if you were nothing but her cabin boy," Zoro continued.

The realization was starting to sink in for Coby.

"The Marines information gathering is top notch. They'll find out about your time with Alvida and you'll never join," Zoro informed him.

"I...never thought of that," Coby said in disappointment.

Suddenly the door to the restaurant opened dramatically. It was the marines.

"Hey, you there," one of the marines called walking in. "We heard that you people are actually pirates. Is this rumor true?" he asked.

"Right. And I just added the third member to my crew, so pretty much the whole thing just became official," Luffy answered with his trademark smile.

"We appreciate everything you did to save our town from that horrible tyrant, who terrorized us all for so long. However, now that we know that you're pirates, as marines, we cannot sit idly by and watch you go about your business," the marine declared dutifully. "Therefore, you and your crew will need to leave this town immediately. But out of respect for what you've done, we will not report you to headquarters," he allowed, not acting completely ungrateful.

The crowd of towns people suddenly broke out in outrage at the way the law enforcers were treating their saviors.

Luffy , Zoro and Yuuki stood up. "Welp, time to go. Thanks for the food lady."

"Hey, wait a second. You're leaving already?" Rika asked the crew in disappointment.

"Yeah," Luffy nodded, carrying a bag of food that they'd been given by Rika's mother.

"Sorry, but that's the way pirates are. Can't stay in one place too long, ya know?" Yuuki tied her white bandanna around her head before she joined her companions, who were already almost out the door.

Coby could only stand, frozen to his spot, as the friends he'd made in such little time walked by him with no guarantee he'd ever see them again.

"Aren't you part of the crew as well?" the marine asked Coby.

"Uh, well-, I-, uh-I" Coby stumbled in his words for an explanation.

Luffy paused, looking over his shoulder and then started again for the door.

"Hold it," the uniform commanded.

They did.

"Is he with you or what?"

Luffy turned to the dark skinned man and took a suspenseful pause.

...

"What we can tell you is what he's been busy doing up to this point," Luffy so helpfully supplied.

Yuuki sighed and as her Captain walked by she whispered, "I'm outta here. Get down to the docks as soon as you're done."

The straw hat made no indication that he heard her as he went about his speech of how Coby got mixed up with some pirates right in front of the Marines. Yuuki walked out the door, nodding to Zoro in acknowledgement, as she turned toward the sea, outside of the establishment. With the door was still open the girl was able to watch out the corner of her eye as Coby sucker punched Luffy in the face. She then smiled proudly at the horizon before her body was engulfed into a dark storm that soon vanished from sight.

S

"That was a thin act you put on back there," Zoro commented after they met Yuuki near the docks.

"Which is exactly why I didn't stick around to see it," muttered Yuuki.

"I wouldn't be surprise if they see right through it," he continued.

Luffy laughed. "Coby should be able to handle the rest on his own. I have faith in him."

"It _is_ a fitting way to leave this place," Zoro supposed. "Unable to turn back as to everyone here hates us now. Very pirate-like," Zoro said with a hint of a smile.

"Well, performance _is_ what pirates are all about," Yuuki teased sarcastically, lightly knocking the First Mate on the shoulder.

"Yeah," Luffy laughed as he released their boat. "It sure is," just which comment Luffy was referring to was unknown or whether he was being playful or serious. You could never really tell with the Captain sometimes.

"Luffy!"

"Hm?" said Luffy turned to see who it was and spotted Coby accompanied by Rika and her mom.

Coby saluted them respectfully. "I can never thank you enough! You've done more for me than anyone ever has!"

"I've never heard a Marine thanking a Pirate before. That's one for the history books," Zoro mused as Luffy's face brightened.

"Hey Coby! Catch!" the boy looked at Yuuki, whose hand shot out and he instinctively panicked. Fumbling with his hands to do as she told him, something hit him square in the forehead before he could react and he fell to the ground. Whatever it was seemed to have bounced off of his head and landed in his ready, but wobbly hands As he recovered from the head injury he looked in his hands to see a ring made of some smooth bright and dark green mineral. He recognized it as the one Yuuki wore and looked up at the redhead in confusion.

"As long as I'm with this guy," she stuck her thumb out at Luffy, "I'm bound to be thrown into some insane fights and that ring just won't be able to take the constant abuse. So, I want you to hang onto it for me for now," she explained. "You can give it back when we see you again and you've become a big, strong marine, okay?" Yuuki smiled confidently as did her companions at the promise.

Coby seemed to be stunned for a moment before he clutched the ring in his hands. Getting back on his feet, he saluted the pirate crew again, "You can count on me!"

With that done, the pirates set sail and headed to wherever the wind sent them.

"We'll meet again, Coby! Someday!" Luffy waved his arms in the air happily.

Behind the Marine's new cabin boy, the whole of the marine base stood to attention, saluting along with the boy.

"See~ ya~," Luffy yelled at them in farewell. Yuuki raised her gloved hand to give them a short, sloppy mock salute in return, grinning lazily, while Zoro chose to just look back coolly.

A fair distance from the island Luffy gazed forward at their course. He stood at the front of the boat with Yuuki, who sat on the front's edge, more cautious of the waters below. Zoro was leaned against the back side of their boat as all of them looked into the sunset.

"At last our pirate crew finally sets sail," Luffy announced, holding his hat in place to keep it from being blown away by the wind.

"I got the feeling some interesting adventures are waiting for us," predicted Zoro.

"I'll be King of the Pirates, I know it," Luffy said resolutely.

"The One Piece oughtta be something," Yuuki said definitely as she raised her hand to stare at where her ring used to be.

"You two seem more than obsessed with this King of the Pirates business. Is there some kind of story behind it or any kind of reason at all?" Zoro asked them curiously.

"No. No reason, it's just…" Luffy trailed, looking at Yuuki and she stared back. In that instance, Zoro felt that their gazes held something more that he could possibly imagine.

"Just what?" Zoro encouraged.

"I promised someone...a while back. I swore that I'd gather a crew, find the world's greatest treasure, and become King of the Pirates with Yuuki," Luffy revealed, now looking at the sea again. Zoro turned to the silent Vice-Captain in inquiry as well.

"Stick with Luffy, find the One Piece," the Storm Witch stated simply. "That's always been the plan."

"And this straw hat and Yuuki's bandanna know the whole story," Luffy finished.

Zoro looked at the two and smiled turning up to the sky. "I see," he said simply, not pressing for more.

"Now, let's go! It's time for us to set our heading," Luffy shouted to the sky. "For the Grand~ Line~!"

S

As a side note, I would like to say that I have no idea if the explanation for that whole thing about water in the human body making a person last longer than having food is true. It made sense to me, so I just came up with some BS info, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, if that whole outburst of Zoro toward Yuuki that led to the head butting seemed OOC, I apologize. I just really wanted it in there and I couldn't come up with anything better. But if you "demand an explanation dammit!" I can say that it reminded him so much of him and Kuina that he saw it as if Kuina had given up to him without a fight and he got just as pissed at her for that as he did about the whole gender thing...oh, and you can blame it on the fatal starvation, heat stroke or exhaustion. Take your pick.

Thank yous to my first reviewer: Evalyd Yamazaki


	4. Of Talking Trees

**AU:** So, because shit happens some major changes have taken place. It really won't affect you readers except for the fact that Yuki now has a fingerless glove on her right hand and that her name is now Kou S. Yuuki. But if you care to know more about the changes feel free to refer to the new AU in chapter one, if not, go on ahead. Oh, yeah and the title changed again... sorry 'bout that.

Also, there is a new person behind the inner workings of this story. Her name is Mistyfalls, who is also my good friend and will be contributing to this story as of now and is to be credited as such. Another helper who has been a great help for my writing problems is Kittylynne. Without both of them this fic might have never seen the day of light again.

And enjoy.

**Disclaimer:** Nobody owns One Piece, but Oda-sama, we clear? All we have is the right to screw around with what he makes.

Chapter 4

"Looks like we're taking a detour."

"Is he going to be alright?"

"You're free to give him mouth to mouth."

"... I think he'll be okay."

"This isn't the first time I've seen this happen to him. As long as he's breathing he'll live," Yuuki said dismissively. "Our top priority now is to fix what he broke." She looked at the ripped, white cloth in her hands with a sigh.

"So now that none of our lives are in mortal danger, you gonna explain to me what your problem is?" Zoro had taken off his shirt and busied himself with ringing it out over the boat into the ocean. While his attention seemed to be on drying his shirt, his voice demanded an answer. "'Cause I think I deserve to know why I had to be the one to get drenched," the Swordsman snapped, tossing the shirt in the boat with a _plop!_ when it landed. True to his word, Zoro was soaked from head to toe and did not look too happy about it.

Luffy, likewise, was also dripping, lain out on the floor, asleep, but otherwise fine.

No one would wanted to accept it, but it was a fact that the three pirates were destined for trouble.

_"Yum! This is great!" Luffy scarfed down their food with glee. Out on the seas it got so boring on their tiny, little boat. Meat-er...lunch time was the only thing he could ever look forward to on a regular basis. Sadly, he couldn't get his 5 square meals a day (I mean, really, he'd miss two or three whole meals sometimes!), but even he had the brains to know that complaining wouldn't fix it (which he'd figured out on the 5th day)._

_"Where does he put it all?" Zoro couldn't help staring at his new companion, who ate enough food for ten people and then some._

_"Don't know. He's always been like this though, so I wouldn't think on it too much," Yuuki said, popping a grape in her mouth. "Luffy, I know you have a problem with self-control, but just a heads up. We probably won't reach any place with a market until later tomorrow."_

_"Really?" Zoro perked. "Then we better stop. By the looks of it, we'll barely have enough to eat one or two more times."_

_Luffy , who was sticking his hand in the sack of food they'd gotten from Rika's town, pulled out a biscuit. He stuffed it in his mouth saying in between chews, "But I'm still hungry."_

_"You just ate more than both of us," he pointed to himself and Yuuki, "combined. I doubt you'll die of starvation." He internally shuddered at his own words, remembering the experience of being deprived of food for nearly a month. He had been able to endure it for three weeks and he could probably even do it again if need be, but the whole thing still sucked and he didn't plan on revisiting such desperation as to eat a dirty rice ball again any time soon._

_"Fine," he conceded, tying up the bag. But that didn't stop him from trying to leech off of his crew mates. First, he looked expectantly to Yuuki, who was the most likely candidate, but he drooped when he saw the grape vine in her hand bare. All that left was Zoro. And the perfect target was laying right at his side. _

_Seeing Luffy stretch and make a grab for his bread the Swordsman quickly stabbed one of his sheathed swords down on the hand, pinning it to the boat floor. _

_"Ouch!"_

_"No way. This is mine, so keep your grubby hands to yourself," he glared, lifting his covered blade, allowing the rubber man's hand to retract._

_"Come on. You aren't eating it," Luffy whined sorely, holding his slightly red hand pathetically for effect, in hopes it would convince the man._

_It didn't._

_"That's 'cause I was having a drink," the former Pirate Hunter replied irritably. "Now quite being a moocher and back off."_

_There was silence between the inhabitants of the boat as the two had a staring contest. The tension rose, becoming so thick Yuuki thought she actually saw it crackling between the two._

_"I just want some food," he defended loudly, standing up to look down at his First Mate._

_"You just ate!" Zoro stood as well, spilling a bottle of water, but neither seemed to notice, too caught up in their battle of wills._

_"You know, we could just put the food back in the bag," Yuuki suggested._

_"Stay out of it!" They both yelled at her._

_"Man, you're just stingy," Luffy stuck his tongue out and pulled down his eye lid._

_"And you're a greedy glutton! Can you take one second to thi-woah!"_

_Just then a large wave crashed against the boat, rocking it and making the men stumble. As they tried to regain their balance they both slipped on the spilled water. Zoro grabbed onto the mast behind him and barely managed to catch himself from falling. Luffy, on the other hand, could only manage to grab the sail. However, unable to support his weight, it easily ripped sending him overboard and into the water with a large splash._

_"Glah! Plep!" The Captain's yells were gargled as his head bobbed to the surface for one second. In an instant, he sunk down below with bubbles rising from where he fell in._

_"Luffy! What the-? He can't swim!" Zoro looked to Yuuki frantically. She, however, was not exactly in the mood for a discussion with their friend still in the water._

_"Zoro! Get in there! He's drowning!" she yelled, pushing the Swordsman toward the water._

_"Hey! Quit pushing me!" When she stopped, Zoro quickly detached his swords from his side. "Let's go!" he said, getting ready to dive._

_"I can't," she stated simply._

_"What! Why not!"_

_"I just can't! Now will you go before I have to succeed Luffy as Captain!" She then shoved the First Mate overboard._

_"Ah!" he shouted as he got soaked._ 'That girl is dead!' _he thought lividly. Then remembered his drowning Captain. ''_Well, she is once I drag back his sorry ass,_' he added, diving down to find the teen. Soon Luffy was retrieved and Yuuki was stuck to deal with a broken sail, an unconscious Captain and a drenched, royally pissed off First Mate._

"I ate a devil fruit," was her explanation.

"What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Zoro was still on a short fuse from his involuntary bath.

"Eating a devil fruit gives you powers; that's true, but what you don't know is the fatal flaw of it all," the green haired man looked at her expectantly. "When someone eats a devil fruit, they can't swim anymore," his eyes widened in surprise and understanding. "When people like us hit the water they just sink. Not only that, but it also weakens and immobilizes them. Taking away any powers they gained from their devil fruit," she said, not looking at him once when she spoke. Instead, the whole time she was intently studying the ripped sail thoughtfully.

"So, does it happen with all water?" he inquired.

"Yes and no." He waited for her to explain. "No, we're not affected by the rain, but yes, its any kind of water. Although, it only happens once a part of our body is submerged."

"And yet you both still sailed out here," he stated. "Despite having a weakness that could be the death of you around 24/7," he paused, mulling over the condition of the two.

Well that just added to the number of problems. It was bad enough that they had no real boat, crew, a low food supply and a useless sail, but now he learned if either of them stepped in a really deep puddle it weakened them and their little super powers were shot to hell. Just great.

Still, he thought. It was worse for them. And it was admirable of them to go after their dreams with such a severe weakness. He didn't know how anyone could deal with that. Forgetting the fact that they'd die if they ever fell in the water, it would be just damn annoying if it weakened you that much. Even the powers you got were taken away. What was even more commending was that they intended to be pirates. Pirates who sailed the ocean. The _ocean_: a giant body of water.

The Swordsman didn't really know what he would do if he couldn't swim. _'Probably be dead,'_ he answered himself. Although he'd never admit it, he'd accidentally fallen in the water on more than one occasion.

"It's not so bad. There are plenty of normal people who can't swim that are on the seas. Other than getting weaker and not being able to move, we're not taking much more of a risk than them. We're just careful not to fall overboard," she paused as she remembered something. "Except for Luffy. Who's always forgetting and diving in anyway; the idiot," she mumbled, finally taking her eyes off the cloth to make eye contact. "Anyway, like I said. We're going to need to stop to get some things to fix our sail. I think there was supposed to be an island not too far from here. With any luck, there's people on it."

"Looks like we're paddling for now," Zoro picked up the oars and placed the ends in the water. As he was about to row, a flash of movement distracted him. "What the hell are you _doing_?"

"Huh?" she looked up at him. "Um... taking off his shirt?" Yuuki asked, as if she wasn't sure herself. She was hovered above Luffy holding the top of his vest open where she'd undone the buttons.

"Why!" he shouted, very uncomfortable looking at the sight.

"He might catch cold with wet clothes." She paused as a thought came to her. "Now that I think about it, they say idiots don't catch colds," she briefly pondered, then shook her head. "Eh, better safe than sorry."

"Here, I'll do it," Zoro shoved himself in between the two.

Normally, Zoro had no bones about not having some cloths on as long as all the important parts were covered. It was when someone else was doing the undressing that he felt the need to intervene.

Yuuki stared owlishly at Zoro while he was finishing her job and a small smile spread across her face. "I'm glad Luffy chose someone like you to be our crew mate," she spoke randomly. "It'll be nice to have someone else to help look after him again."

"Yeah, thanks," he grumbled. "I have no idea how you've put up with him for so long." He got up and moved back to the oars when he was done.

"Oddly, with Luffy, you just get used to him over time and it becomes natural to deal with him and all the baggage he comes with."

Zoro sweatdropped at that. He may have said that he thought they had some interesting adventures ahead of them, but now he felt that there were going to be some major, unavoidable mishaps and train wrecks along for the ride as well.

S

When they reached land it did not look promising. There were no docks for them to anchor their boat to, so they pulled it up on the beach to prevent it from floating away. Before them was a large expanse of forest as far as they could see. No markets. No towns. No village. There wasn't even a house in sight.

"I'm just gonna take a wild guess, but I don't think we'll be finding any sail repair shops here," a now fully clothed Zoro commented.

"Maybe, but it's the closest island there was. We might as well give it a shot," Yuuki crossed her arms. "If we're lucky there will be a village close by and we just came to the wrong side of the island."

"I'm all for trying, but what are we gonna do him?" the Swordsman pointed to their shirted rubbery friend. It had been about an hour since his near drowning, but the Captain was still out cold.

"We carry him," she said simply, trying to pull the boy onto her back.

Zoro sweatdropped at this. They weren't going to leave him knocked out all by himself. If they did that there was no telling what might happen with stray animals going by, any thieves that might be around; you name it (hell, they probably wouldn't even leave him alone if he was awake with all that he could get into by himself). But he didn't think it was a good idea for someone to carry another person who was nearly a head taller than themselves.

"Look, I'll do it. We have no idea how long we'll be looking," Zoro offered, but she didn't seem to hear him, too focused on getting the straw hat boy securely on her back. He doubted she could even drag the guy, let alone carry him. Watching her try made him feel pity, like watching a small child attempt to walk a dog twice its size.

It was just sad (and admittedly a little amusing) to watch.

To his surprise, once the girl got her arms under the rubber man's knees and his arms draped over her shoulders, she lifted him expertly and held him up with no problems.

"Ready?" she asked him, unblinking.

"Uh, yeah..." he trailed, a bit bewildered. Quickly grabbing the bag they had stashed the damaged sail in, Zoro slipped the satchel's strap over his head and walked with her into the woodlands.

Checking the forest for a town or even a house was easier said than done. It was fairly thick with trees seeming to sprout every 10 ft. of land and only seemed to get more crowded as time went by. Not only that, but the two conscious pirates both noticed that the forest seemed to get darker as they went deeper. It wasn't so bad that they couldn't see, but it was getting dimmer and there wasn't that much light.

It seemed that the type of tree was the cause. It was easily noted that the trees in the forest had leaves of an obviously darker color than normal trees. That and seeing as the trees only got closer in proximity to each other as they got farther away from the ocean caused the sun to be well blocked from the forest floor by the particular tree and its abundance.

"Hey, I think I hear something," Yuuki spoke while they wandered through the woods.

"What is it?"

"It sounds like... running water," she listened closely and continued on to confirm her suspicions. Getting hopeful that there might be people not too far if a source of water was nearby, the Vice-Captain jogged toward the noise, followed by Zoro. Unknowingly, she started to pick up her pace in anticipation and wasn't taking care in her steps.

In one move of carelessness, the redhead caught her foot on an upraised root. Normally, she might have regained her footing, but with Luffy still on her back there was no way. She was not used to the extra weight and due to the momentum created by this, she could only let herself drop.

Seeing her about to fall Zoro dashed forward to catch her... but unexpectedly stepped on something and tripped as well.

"Ah!"

"Oof!"

The two lay there, groaning, on the ground. It wasn't because of hitting the floor though. Falling and hurting themselves wasn't the problem here. It was more of the humiliation and embarrassment that came out of falling at all that kept them from getting up immediately.

"Sorry," Zoro mumbled at his failure to catch her from falling and even ending up tripping himself.

"Thanks for trying," Yuuki consoled pushing herself up with her elbows and onto her knees.

Zoro eyed the Yuuki's burden. "Is there anything that can wake this guy?" Luffy was still slumped against her back, although his legs laid limp behind her since she let go of them when they fell.

And yet, the straw hat still remained dead asleep.

"He always does this..." she muttered.

Zoro sat up, briefly stretching his arms. He stopped when he felt eyes on him and turned to see Yuuki staring at his face intently. She was just looking at him like some sort of puzzle, boring holes into him. As if he could tell her how to find the One Piece if she stared long enough. And quite frankly, it was starting to creep him out. "What...?" he began, but trailed as she gently touched his cheek near his left eye with her two fingers.

As the fingers tips of her gloved hand rested against his skin she lifted them again to lightly touch his face and her eyes widened fractionally. Zoro had been watching her carefully the whole time, thoroughly confused, but waiting to see what she would do. He tensed as she took her hand away.

"I knew it," she said softly.

"Knew what?" he asked, curious.

She sighed, before shaking her head. "You cut your face when you fell," she informed him, turning her fingers around to show him blood.

Feeling beneath his eye, he realized she was right, much to his chagrin. "Shit," he frowned.

"I thought I saw some blood, but I wasn't sure with the lighting in this forest," she murmured.

Zoro shut his eyes. "Don't worry about it. It's just a scratch. For now, let's just find that river or whatever it is."

"Here," Yuuki stopped him from getting up by placing a cloth to the injury.

"Where'd you get this?" he asked, surprised, referring to the cloth. It was some kind of handkerchief, but she just seemed to have materialized it from thin air.

"Mm," she shrugged absentmindedly, "it was just something laying around where I lived. I took it with me just in case before me and Luffy left for our journey." She had just a hint of a smile as she dabbed the cloth on his face. "You never know," she said, with glassy eyes.

Zoro looked down at the cloth on his face as she cleaned the small wound. He then turned his eyes to her and stared. When she was done and moved her hand away his eyes suddenly hardened and he grabbed one of her shoulders in a gentle, but firm hold.

Yuuki blinked. "Z-"

He cut her off by shushing her. His eyes had an intent gleam to them and she could feel his even breathing as he leaned his face in closer to hers ever so slowly...

_Sheee-thunk!_

Yuuki looked to the side with only her eyes to see one of Zoro's swords lodged into the bottom of a tree behind her, tacking something down. When she caught sight of it, it fell limp and he reached over to pull his weapon out, with the object still impaled.

"What is it?" she asked as she studied it with a mix of surprise and intrigue.

"Some kind of snake?" he wondered aloud, taking his hand off of the redhead's shoulder. It seemed a little too short and fat for a snake, though. It was a dark sheeny black with thin rings of white throughout its body. "I don't really know, but I'm guessing this is what I stepped on when I fell," he pulled the corpse off to point out the dirty shoe print on the body of the dead animal.

When Yuuki had finished cleaning the blood from Zoro's face, he's seen the thing creeping behind her slowly. He supposed it didn't take too kindly to being stepped on and wanted some way to outlet its anger. Although, it made the mistake of picking Yuuki as its target. Zoro, seeing it behind her, had tried to keep both of them quiet and still, so as to not incite the animal to attack. Just when it seemed to come at them, he stabbed it, killing it instantly, before it got too close.

The two scrutinized it another moment before the Swordsman blurted, "You think we can eat?"

Yuuki raised an eyebrow. "You're starting to sound like Luffy," she mused. After a moment, "You don't think he's contagious, do you?" she asked, worried, wearily eyeing the boy on her back. The last thing she needed was for either of them to start always complaining about hunger and have the intelligence of a log.

"I'm just saying, we're running a little low on food. Having some extra supplies wouldn't hurt," he told her.

Yuuki supposed he was right. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing they'd ever eaten in her opinion. "Okay then, wrap it in this," she gave him the handkerchief.

He quickly tied it up in the handkerchief and set it in the bag they kept the sail in. He didn't object to carrying it, seeing as Yuuki was the one hauling Luffy.

"I'll check it out later and make sure we're not going to eat something poisonous before we do anything with it," she added, picking Luffy up again as she stood.

Making their way to the sounds of water (much more carefully this time), they were disappointed to find it to be just a small stream. It was so small, Yuuki didn't even have to worry about drowning if she fell in. She could just step over it. It was discouraging, because if the water source was so small, it was less likely that there was a town or a village close by that would use it.

"What do you think we should do?" Zoro consulted her.

"I say we keep going. Unless you've got a better suggestion," she waited expectantly, but received no indication he did; only a shrug. "Well, we've come this far, why not a little more? It might widen out if we keep following it," she said optimistically. "But before that," she walked over to the small stream. Moving Luffy off of her back she removed his hat and gingerly placed it on the ground next to her.

Zoro raised an eyebrow. "What are you-?" He got his answer when she lifted the boy by the back of his vest and calmly proceeded to lower his face into the water, producing a sweatdrop from the green haired teenager. Four seconds later the Captain began to flail his arms around as bubbles rose from the water when he tried to breath. Seeing this, the redhead took her sweet time in yanking him back up to allow him to breath air.

_'Well good to know I'm not the only one she does that to,'_ he thought dryly, watching Luffy cough violently as he greedily gulped the air into his lungs. When the rubber man was sure he wasn't going to suffocate he turned on Yuuki, who still held him by the back of his shirt like a puppy.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!"

"It was about time you woke up. I was just speeding up the process," she let go of his shirt, remaining unaffected by Luffy's anger.

"You didn't have to dunk my head in the water!"

"Oh, c'mon. Anything else short of clobbering you wouldn't have woken you up."

"You could have drowned me," he grumbled, holding his head at the thought of Yuuki hitting him awake. That's when he noticed something missing. "Ah! Where's my hat!" He kept feeling his head as if it was simply lost in the folds of his hair.

"Here," she handed the item to him which he took happily. "And you wouldn't have drowned. If your didn't come to after ten seconds I would have pulled you up," she declared.

_'Before or after he died?'_ Zoro walked off a little to get away from their arguing. It was getting really annoying.

He eventually slumped against an old tree a safe distance (for his sanity) away from his Captains. Suddenly, the most unexpected happened.

"Hello?" he heard a voice.

"Huh?" he glanced over to see Yuuki and Luffy still at it. The only difference was that Luffy had gone from mad to simmering. So, who had he heard talking?

"Is there anyone out there?" said the voice again. It was emanating from behind him, he realized. Getting up to inspect the tree, he experimentally tapped the bark and was surprised to hear more muffled noises from within.

"Hey guys," he called as Luffy's pout was being ignored by the Vice-Captain. "You might wanna come see this," suspicion and uncertainty worked their way into his voice.

"See what?" Yuuki asked as they joined him.

Before he could answer they all heard a loud, "Who are you guys?" They all stared in shock for a moment at the tree where the speech came from. As bizarre as it was, they all recognized the voice for what it was; it sounded like a little boy. Looking at the tree, it was a fairly short dead tree that seemed to have a hollow inside judging by all the gaping holes on the branches. It suddenly clicked in their minds.

"Oh my gosh," Luffy began, stepping closer. "Zoro!" he said urgently. "You found a talking tree!"

Okay, so maybe it clicked for two of them.

Zoro resisted the urge to face palm. "It's not a talking tree, you idiot. There's someone inside of it!"

"Are you alright? How did this happen?" Yuuki inquired.

"What do you mean 'how did it happen'? A talking tree is a talking tree," Luffy said, having ignored or not heard Zoro. Most likely the latter.

"It's not a talking tree, dammit," the Swordsman said through gritted teeth.

"Ha! We found a talking tree," he eyed the plant in childish glee. "This is so COOL!" he fisted his hands, excited at the 'discovery.' Zoro gave into his urge with a loud _smack!_

"For the last time, it's not a talking tree. It's a kid," Yuuki retorted, annoyed with Luffy's idiocy. She sighed as he still didn't seem to be getting the idea. "So, how did you get in there?" she questioned the child.

"I was... uh, playing. Yeah," the little boy answered. "And I climbed up this tree for fun, but when I tried to get down the wood broke and I fell in," he said miserably. He must have been in there for a while. "Could you-would you help me out? I need to get home."

"But isn't the forest your home Talking Tree?" Luffy asked like a moron.

"Talking tree? I don't-just, please. I need to get back to my mom. She's really sick and probably getting worse 'cause I'm not there," he sounded upset.

"Alright," Zoro said, having given up on making sense to Luffy. He knew just the way to get the little boy out. It was quick enough and very simple. "We got any matches?" he asked Yuuki.

"Um, no. What for?" she dreaded the answer, hoping her creeping suspicions were wrong.

"We'll need something to start a fire. Once that's done we just lite it to let the tree burn up until he's free," he nodded approvingly at his solution.

"YOU'RE GONNA WHAT!" the little boy began to panic.

"We're not going to burn him out," Yuuki growled, believing Zoro was trying to scare the child. That just went to show how well she knew the former Bounty Hunter.

"But you can still help me out, right? I've already been gone too long. My mom's gonna be really worried if I'm not home soon!"

"Fine, we'll do it the hard way then," he heard the man who tried to burn down the tree say begrudgingly with a sigh. Unexpectedly, cracks and breaks started forming where wood met the ground inside the tree and light began to emerge from them. Soon the tree was lifted over his head and to reveal a tall green haired man slightly straining to lift the tree with his hands before he threw the mass of wood away like a discarded piece of trash.

The boy felt his jaw drop and he stared back and forth between the tree and the man. It seemed impossible that the tree could have been handled so easily by one person. "Wow~" he breathed in awe.

"Hey!" His attention was diverted by a skinny, black haired teenager who was pointing at him. "There was someone inside of the Talking Tree!" he exclaimed in surprise.

"That's what we've been trying to tell you, Luffy," a girl with long red hair bonked him on the head before turning her green eyes to him. "What's your name?" she asked more softly than how she addressed her friend, observing him. The kid wore a plain grey shirt, some dark brown suspenders and some simple shoes. Judging by his size, he seemed to be about 10 years old.

It took a moment for him to register the fact that she was talking to him. "Ke-Kenji. Who are you?" He stood up to better level himself with them even though they were all obviously taller than him.

"I'm Yuuki. This is Luffy," she pointed to the Captain as he grinned, giving a friendly wave.

"I'm Zoro," the super strong man walked over to him. "You said you had to get home. Does that mean there's a village near by?"

"No. I live here with my mom. There's no one else on the island."

Normally Kenji wouldn't have told strangers such a thing, but they _did_ rescue him. And they seemed like nice enough people. Plus, he was curious about them. He didn't really meet many people on the island since they lived alone and honestly, the green haired guy, Zoro, was the coolest thing he'd ever seen.

Kenji watched with interest as Zoro and Yuuki physically deflated when he said that.

"Crap. Well, would you happen to have something that could fix a sail?" the redhead asked sheepishly. "Ours kinda ripped," she looked pointedly at Luffy, who was oblivious to it.

"Maybe. My mom might-" the boy abruptly jumped, remembering his mother. "Mom!" he turned and started to run, but stopped as his mind went to the strange group he'd just met. "Um," he turned back to them, "I could probably help you, but I have to go home. I can help you get it fixed there," he worded, basically asking them to follow him.

Soon they were out of the woods and came upon an open area where a fair sized house stood next to a river. There was a wide field of land in front of the house that looked to be for growing food, but only a small portion of land near the house was in use, full of colorful produce. When they were at the door they all watched Kenji dash into the house, following not too far behind him.

"Mom! I'm home!" He went into one of the rooms.

The pirates came to find a sickly looking woman in bed. The room was fairly simple with the bed shoved against the wall that had a window with a table near the other side where a small basket box sat.

The woman's long brown hair was strewn out messily on the pillow and she smiled at Kenji weakly. "Where have you been, Kenji?" her small voice was full of relief. "Is everything alright?"

"I'm okay. I just got stuck in a tree when I was, uh, playing in the forest."

"'Stuck in tree'? What do you mean?'" Just then she noticed the presence of the pirate trio in the door way. "And who are these people?" She looked slightly weary of them. Especially Zoro as she got a glance at his three weapons.

In response to her agitation, the boy hurriedly explained. "They're the people who helped me out. And that guy," he pointed to Zoro, "he lifted a whole tree by himself when they rescued me!" he smiled.

She was very weak, but still managed to look shocked by the news at first, but soon came to her senses. "Kenji, you shouldn't make up stories like that." Before he could argue she gave him a weathered 'not in front of others' look. "And you are?" she inquired.

Yuuki stepped up, "I'm Yuuki. My friends here are Zoro," the Swordsman gave a short wave, "and Luffy."

"Thank you all so much for helping my son," the woman smiled back tiredly.

"No problem," Luffy grinned, forgetting he did nothing and Zoro was the one who freed Kenji.

"If you don't mind me asking, why did come to the island?" the mother asked softly. "We don't tend to get many visitors here except for a boat that brings supplies every so often. Are you sailors, perhaps?"

Luffy opened his mouth, but before he could answer, Yuuki cut in, "Yeah, we are." It probably wasn't a good idea to tell the pale mother that they were pirates. First of all, the woman looked weak enough without having to deal with the stress of pirates and they had no idea how she or Kenji, felt on the subject, so it was best to keep quiet. At least until they got their sail fixed. Then the mother and child could angrily chase them off the island if they wanted to.

"But-" Luffy, ever stupidly truthful, was about to correct her, but she quickly covered his mouth and pushed him over before adding.

"As for why we're here. Our sail got torn and we're looking for some way to repair or replace it," she explained.

"How'd that happen anyway?" Luffy got up, forgetting Yuuki's short assault.

"You of all people outta know. You're the one who broke it."

He cocked his head, thoroughly confused.

"Before you fell overboard," she hinted. "You grabbed it which is why it's now ripped," she spelled out for him.

"Ah! I remember now!" There was a moment of silence as they all quieted to hear his epiphany. "I'm hungry," he whined holding his stomach.

The two straw hat pirates fell over. "You are such a pain," Yuuki mumbled, sitting back up.

"Yeah? Well, you stuck my head in the river, nye," he shot back (cleverly?), sticking his tongue out at her.

"Your point?"

"I could have died!"

"And we could have just left you on the boat. Then you'd be vulture food," she teased smugly.

"Well, next time I'll throw you in the water and see how you like it!"

_"Anyway_," Zoro cut off anything Yuuki would have said, sending them both a mixed look of disapproval and annoyance. "Do you have anything that could fix it?"

The woman smiled fondly at the three. She'd been uneasy at first, but now she could see they were really just children. Watching Yuuki and Luffy fight brought a familiar feeling to the surface; one that she'd long since missed. They were good kids, she felt, and had a feeling of motherly instinct come over her that impelled her to help them.

"I think we might have a sail laying around somewhere," the mother thought. "But we'd have to dig it up."

"No need," Yuuki interjected, ignoring Luffy who was still making faces at her. "If you've got some thread and a needle, we should be fine."

"In that case, I have some needles and thread right here," she pointed to the basket on the table. "There's not much to do when you're stuck in bed all day but mend clothes and embroider," she smiled. "Feel free to use them."

Luffy ceased his childish behavior at Yuuki and exchanged his attention to the matter at hand. "Thanks, Lady!" he grinned.

"W-When are you guys planning on leaving?" Kenji asked abruptly, with a hint of hesitation.

The male pirates turned to Yuuki. "What?" She blinked.

"You said our sail is ripped," Luffy said. _'Because of you,_' she thought at him, sweatdropping. "How fast can you fix it?"

_'Oh right, I have to fix it. Because you two are useless.'_ "I don't know," she scratched her cheek thoughtfully. "I'm not a very fast seamstress. Maybe...ah, by dark."

"Oh yeah," he grinned. "You really suck at sowing. Ha, ha-ugh!" he yelled when she smacked him in the back of the head.

"I do _not_ suck at sewing," she stated firmly. "I'm just a little slow. Besides, it's more than you could do."

"I know seeing my friends isn't very encouraging, but would it be alright if we stayed the night?" Zoro asked, as Luffy complained to Yuuki about hitting him.

It was already obvious that, given the situation, they'd need to settle down on the island tonight. If the fastest they could get their sail fixed was by night time, it was too much work to set sail when it was done. By that time they'd have to anchor anyway. They might as well take the opportunity to sleep on dry land.

Kneji looked to his mother expectantly.

She thought for a moment and smiled when she saw his enthusiasm, nodding, much to Kenji's delight. "I'd be happy to have you all here."

"Thank you very much, ma'am," Yuuki said politely. "I'll gladly make us all dinner in return if you let me use your kitchen."

"That would be wonderful. But before that we should take care of that cut, Zoro," she turned to him, ever motherly.

"Huh?" Luffy looked over, having noticed it for the first time.

"Oh yeah," the redhead scratched her head awkwardly.

Before the green haired teenager could object, Kenji's mother instructed her son, "Kenji, show them where everything is."

"Okay," he nodded, leading the way.

Zoro was a little put off by the concern. It was just a little cut. Why make a big fuss about it? He'd had far worse and he could almost guarantee them all that the scratch would go away within a day by itself without any medical care. But not wanting to obstruct the woman's health, he quietly went along.

"How did you cut yourself?" Kenji asked after bringing in the first aid materials. They'd exited to the living room to give the mother some rest.

"Did you fall asleep and cut your face on your swords?" Luffy suspected bluntly.

"NO! YOU IDIOT! HOW COULD THAT EVEN HAPPEN! I tripped and probably got it caught on a stick..." his voice faltered as he realized what actually happened didn't preserve his pride much better than the straw hat's stupid theory.

"You realize the whole thing was kind of your fault, Luffy," Yuuki wiped Zoro's cheek with a cloth full of disinfectant.

"What? How?" Luffy was puzzled at the accusation.

"If you _both_ hadn't started arguing about the food, you wouldn't have almost drown and I wouldn't have had to carry you," she told him. "Your extra weight tripped me. Because of that Zoro tried to catch me when I fell and ended up collapsing too," she finished up, putting a bandage on the Swordsman's face.

Luffy stared at her. "...what?"

"Never mind," she muttered as Zoro surpressed an annoyed groan at their Captain's idiocy.

Kenji watched the scene in curiosity. When Zoro had lifted that tree from the roots in the ground and thrown it like it was nothing, he'd immediately perceived the man as strong and cool. Hearing that he got a scratch from tripping somewhat dented that ideal. Also, reasoning told him that Zoro's friends would be similar to him, but seeing them, they acted very...inadequate, for lack of a better term. And quite frankly, it was putting a crack in his imagination of the group.

He was distracted by his thought when Yuuki got up and walked toward the kitchen. "If that's all, I better start on the food," she paused to glance back at him. "I know how to make vegetable soup, will you eat that?"

"Yeah, but we don't have a lot of vegetables in the house. I'll go get some from the garden," he snatched a basket on the counter and just as he was out the door he heard Zoro call to him.

"Wait up! I'll come help you."

Kenji stopped in his tracks, surprised, but nodded, leading them both out to where they grew their food. After a quick run down on how to pick the ripe vegetables was given to the First Mate the two began their work in silence. It was a bit awkward for Kenji and he constantly fidgeted being near the older man.

He wanted to say something, but he just couldn't get up the nerve. While Kenji really did take a liking to him, Zoro was still a relative stranger. He hadn't spoken to anyone other than his mother in years and he felt very stiff trying to do the same with someone else.

Thankfully, Zoro decided to break the ice first.

"Hey, do you know what this is?" the green haired man went into the bag on his side and pulled out the dead animal from earlier on the blood stained cloth.

Kenji was a little jolted at the sight of blood, but calmed as he saw what was being shown to him. "Oh, that's a leech snake," he informed the pirate. One didn't get raised on a nature filled island working on a farm everyday and get intimidated by the sight of a dead snake.

"Do you know anything about it?"

"A little. There's nothing special about it. It drinks blood, but doesn't usually bother bigger things like us. It knows that if it goes after us that we'll kill it."

"That's it, huh?"

After a short moment he quickly added. "Well, it likes light, so they even come out during night time. Except on new moons," he slowed a bit in his explanation at the end, but looked up to the man.

"I see..." he stared at the creature before looking up again. "Then is it safe to eat?"

All he got was a blank stare.

"Why would you do that?" he asked as if asking why one would plant an apple seed to get a peach tree.

Zoro shrugged. "A guy's gotta eat," he answered simply picking a pepper.

"So, what do you guys do out on ocean?" Kenji started awkwardly as they collected the produce.

Zoro looked up, not expecting the conversation to be diverted toward him. "Not much. I actually only met my friends a few days ago and just started traveling with them."

"Like, you met up with them again? How long have you known them?"

"That's not what I mean. I'm saying I'd never met either of them before the last few days."

"Really? You just met them and they're already your friends?" Kenji hadn't learned much about meeting new people as he'd spent his entire life on the island, but that sounded a bit odd, even to him.

"Yeah, I guess they are," he hadn't thought of it much until now.

Just as Yuuki had pointed out, he got himself involved with the two without knowing a single thing about them. But he'd learn.

Admittedly, there were times that the First Mate frustratedly wondered why he'd ever joined up with them, death threats from marines aside, but found that, truly thinking about it, he couldn't find it in himself to regret it or feel that he'd want to be anywhere else. It was a strange effect the pirate duo had on him.

"But you've gotta do something. You're sailors. Maybe..." he searched his mind, "you're Marines," he guessed.

_'No, we're the exact opposite,_' Zoro internally chuckled. Shaking his head at the irony he went back to work picking the vegetables.

Kenji took the shake as a no and continued to guess. "You're not fisherman, are you? Then you wouldn't have swords," he thought aloud. "I bet you're some kind of bodyguard for Yuuki and Luffy. But then what guarding them from?" he crossed his arms.

"Themselves," he answered barely thinking.

"Huh?"

"I'm surprised those two morons have survived without me all this time. They get into trouble so easily and I end up having to save them," he grumbled, reflecting on Luffy's near drowning earlier that day.

Unbeknownst to the former Bounty hunter his comment triggered a very different scenario to run through the small imaginative boy's head.

_"Please let us go!" Yuuki begged their captors tearfully. "I didn't mean to get your clothes dirty! It was an accident!"_

_"I didn't even do anything! Please let me go," Luffy shook in fright._

_"Your excuses mean nothing! Women and weaklings should know their place!" a burly, fat man said, backed up by mob of evil looking men._

_"Oh no! We're gonna get killed!" Yuuki screamed looking away from their soon-to-be killers. They were in a windowless room and the men were blocking the door. There was no escape for the two._

_"No! we'll do anything, just please don't hurt us!" Luffy wailed. "This is all your fault, Yuuki! If you hadn't thrown that pie at him, we wouldn't be in this mess!"_

_"I was aiming for you! Oh, if you hadn't dodged it," she cried. "So, you do something about it!"_

_"What? I'm so weak, I'll be dead in a second! You go!" he yelled back.  
_

_"Oh, will anyone save us?" Yuuki asked on her knees with hands folded in prayer, looking up imploringly._

_"No one will be able to help you!" the ugly man said before laughing maniacally. "Get them!" he commanded his men.  
_

_"AH! Help!" both yelled, closing their eyes.__  
_

_Suddenly there was a loud smash and a flash of green. All men but the boss were on the ground, slain, as a shadowy figure stood in the door way. "Who dares to kidnap my friends!" he shouted with a sword in his hand._

_"You," the fat man paled. "You defeated all of my men. Please, leave me be! I'll give you money, power, anything you want, just please spare me!" he threw his arms in front of himself in protection._

_Zoro walked in toward the man and stopped in front of him. "I don't want your money. All I want are my friends. I'll give you mercy, but only because they are not harmed. Now get out of here," he made some slashes at the man, but nothing happened. After a moment all his clothes fell off in sheds and he covered himself in shame, running out the door crying as Zoro calmly put his swords away._

_"Zoro! I knew you would come!" Yuuki gushed.__  
_

_"No need to fear. You can always rely me!" he said, shooting her a gleaming, shining smile. Yuuki fainted with a girlish sigh and Luffy ran over to him._

_"Zoro! You saved me!" he cried, tears running down his face. "How can I ever thank you!"_

_"You don't need to thank me, we're friend after all!" the green haired man smiled happily. _

_"Oh, you're so wonderful Zoro," Yuuki said, getting up from her fainting. "You must be so tired of us. You're always coming to our rescue and all we ever do is get into trouble," she teared up._

_"It's true! We don't deserve you!" Luffy hugged Yuuki in their despair._

_"Don't worry about it," he wiped her tears away. "I do it, because I care about you guys and I promise I'll always be there to save you," he crossed his arms and looked up at the sun that suddenly appeared as its light shone on him heroically._

Kenji nodded happily. It was sure to go off like that! It explained everything!

Zoro looked over at Kenji when he felt eyes on his and found the boy's eyes sparkling in admiration for the Swordsman. He sweatdropped under the child's gaze uncomfortably and went back to picking vegetables, oblivious to the thriller movie featuring himself that had gone on in the little boy's head.

_'Man, this guy is incredible!'_

_'Man, this kid is weird.'_

The two came back to find Yuuki trying to make dinner. The key word being 'trying.' Her relentless Captain was constantly hovering over her, either trying to steal bites from what she was making or complaining to her about making meat too. Zoro was genuinely impressed she had not lost her temper yet with all the pestering and seemed to actually deal with it very well.

Every time Luffy tried to get his hands on some unattended food she would stop him by slapping his hand away, cutting the black haired teen's advances short by slamming a knife down as a barrier between him and the food or by some other effective method.

When he would complain about things like "When is it going to be ready?" "Will you make some meat?" or "Why won't you let me snack?" she would appear patient and give short simple answers such as "Later," "No" and "Because you're you." The whole time she somehow moved swiftly around the kitchen grabbing pans, bowls, chopping food and various other tasks, despite the interference from the gluttonous teen.

It was really rather entertaining to watch them go back and forth, both physically and verbally, but Zoro thought that he should give the cook a break as he brought attention to their return.

"Good," she breathed out in relief. "He won't stop bothering me," she took the basket of vegetables they brought in. Since they'd left, the Vice-Captain had taken off her bandanna and tied it around her waist to keep it out of the way.

"Only 'cause you never let me eat anything," Luffy pouted, crossing his arms.

"Hey, Kenji," she called, ignoring the Captain's complaint. "You got chickens on this farm?"

"Um, yeah," he replied, not knowing where she was going with this.

"Would you mind showing Luffy the birds?"

Kenji looked at her strangely, but obliged anyway.

"Wanna see where the chickens lay the eggs?" Zoro and Yuuki heard their voices fade as they left.

"Chicken can lay eggs! I thought it was just some tasty meat, but it can make eggs too!"

The two sweatdropped, staring after the boys (at least mentally they both were) awkwardly for a moment, before Yuuki turned back to the cooking and Zoro leaned against the counter.

"What was that about?" he questioned the Storm Witch.

"Something to (hopefully) get Luffy off my back long enough for me to make the food." A silence set in as she washed the vegetables and began to chop them. Sensing some awkwardness, Yuuki looked up catching sight of Zoro shifting uncomfortably. She stopped her activities altogether and gave him her undivided attention. "Do you have a request or something?" she said, as if amused by the idea.

"No, I just wanted to give you this," he took out the leech snake and handed it to her. "I already asked Kenji about it and he said that it was a leech snake. It drinks blood, doesn't like light, but the point is, it's edible. You can feed it to Luffy to get him off your back about the meat," he offered.

Yuuki froze for a moment, as if processing the what he said and smiled at gesture. "Hey, Dreamer." In a second, she swiftly pulled him down to kiss the bandage on his cheek. "That's a thank you and to help make your little cut feel better," she said in all seriousness.

He stared down at her smiling face awkwardly, which was a little more than strange to see. Why did he feel that she was treating him like a little kid that got scrapped up when he was playing?

And dammit, she was using that stupid name on him again.

The thought of the nickname she'd been calling him made the Swordsman twitch in irritation. Needless to say, Zoro didn't take too well to it. She'd started doing it a day or two back and it was annoying as hell, but he couldn't figure out a feasible way to make her stop. He was beginning to realize, at times, she could be just like their Captain when it came to her decisions. Stubborn. Selfish. Firm. And final.

"'Dreamer,'" he reiterated in pent up frustration. "What hell kind of name is that anyway?" he inquired heatedly.

He hoped showing his distaste for the name more openly would do something. However, from past attempts, getting her off the use of the nickname was like trying to refuse Luffy when the rubber man had tried to get Zoro to join his crew. Sure, he struggled against it as best he could, but looking around at this situation now, the former Bounty Hunter couldn't deny, it was useless. Just like what he was doing now.

But a guy can always try.

"Yours," she answered factually. "'Cause that's what you are," she proved his prediction right.

Zoro mentally face palmed. That's when he saw a perfect little piece of payback. "Don't look now, but the soup's boiling over," he pointed behind her blandly.

Indeed, the liquid in the pot was bubbling to the top, raising the lid to escape and dripping over the sides rapidly to the redhead's horror.

"Shit!" she cursed as she rushed to turn down the heat and take in the damage. Meanwhile, the Swordsman walked away leisurely, relishing the distressed sounds of his Vice-Captain from the predicament, and leaving her with the culinary chaos.

S

Thank you to reviewers: Kishi, MidoriPoet, Mistyfalls and last but by no means least, Kittylynne

Any questions?


End file.
